Improving Manufacturing Processes Using Simulation Methods

Sławomir Kłos¹, Justyna Patalas-Maliszewska¹ and Peter Trebuna^2,

¹University of Zielona Góra, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Licealna 9, 65-417 Zielona Góra, Poland

²Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Cite this paper:
Sławomir Kłos, Justyna Patalas-Maliszewska and Peter Trebuna. Improving Manufacturing Processes Using Simulation Methods. Journal of Automation and Control. 2015; 3(3):83-88. doi: 10.12691/automation-3-3-9

Abstract

Computer simulation is a very important method for studying the efficiency of manufacturing systems. This paper presents the results of simulation research about how buffer space allocated in a flow line and operation times influence the throughput of a manufacturing system. The production line in the study consists of four stages and is based on a real machining manufacturing system of a small production enterprise. Using Tecnomatix Plant Simulation software, a simulation model of the system was created and set of experiments was planned. Simulation experiments were prepared for different capacities of intermediate buffers located between manufacturing resources (CNC machines) and operation times as input parameters, and the throughput per hour and average life span of products as the output parameter. On the basis of the experiments, the impact of the allocation of intermediate buffer capacities on production efficiency is analysed.

Keywords:
computer simulation production line buffer allocation throughput

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