	Services
	Self Evaluation
	Working Groups
	Model Gallery
	Simulation
	Success Stories
	Brochure
	Events
	Members
	Who is Who
	Tools
	Benefits
	White Papers
	News
	FAQ
	Contact Us
	Links
	Training

DECORPART – Manufacturing Planning and Capacity Optimisation

Problem Statement
UK based medium-sized company Decorpart produces a wide range of different parts in large quantities. To improve competitive position it needs to ensure high efficiency and low cost in all production steps. Production Scheduling is therefore very critical

Improvement Approach
A sophisticated scheduling tool will be introduced. In order to make best use of it and find the optimal configuration of parameters for the tool, a simulation model of the entire production process was built to test out effects of various configurations.

Benefits
Testing, optimisation of the scheduling tool configuration was carried out offline using the model. The real production process wasn't disturbed, and the optimum configuration was found quickly at low cost. The company reduced raw material in stock by 50%

Contact information
RTU, Department of Modelling and Simulation
Kalku Street, 1, LV-1658, Riga, Latvia
Phone +371 7089514 , Fax +371 7089513
e-mail gm@itl.rtu.lv
www.rtu.lv/mik

A high level manufacturing/business system simulation model visualisation

PROBLEM STATEMENT

DECORPART is a medium-sized company, which supplies small, pressed aluminium parts to a range of other consumer-focused businesses. Typical applications include spray assemblies for perfumes and dispenser units for asthma sufferers. The business lies in a highly competitive sector and success depends on achieving high efficiency and low cost of manufacturing.

In the past, Decorpart had already installed software tools supporting the scheduling of individual areas of the production process. To improve the overall performance, increase output and reduce lead time, they now planned to implement an overall scheduling system co-ordinating all local systems.

Modern production scheduling tools are very powerful and offer a range of options and parameters for adapting the tool’s behaviour to the requirements of the real process. However, the more options exist, the more difficult it becomes to find the best configuration of the tool.
Even experts often cannot predict the effects of the many possibilities.

Testing out even a small number of possible configurations in reality, and studying their effects on the real production process might take months and might severely reduce the overall performance. Hence such tests are not feasible in practice.

In order to deliver their customer the best possible solution, the supplier of the scheduling tool, Preactor International decided to use a simulation model for finding the optimal configuration of the scheduling tool.

IMPROVEMENT APPROACH

A custom-built model was built that simulates the arrival of orders, their queuing and their flow through all steps of the production process. For the overall co-ordination and schedule optimisation, each process stage was modelled as a group of machines with an overall capacity per day or per week. In order to check if the model reflects the real process adequately, a set of real data was compared with the data produced by the simulation. It was found that the model and the real process produce more or less identical results.

The anodising process was known to be particularly important for the overall production. Therefore the model of this process was refined and the individual anodising tanks were described in detail, so that colour changeover and set-up times could be studied more precisely. In this way, it was tested to what extent the overall lead time of orders can be reduced by optimisation of the anodising process stage.

Next, the Preactor scheduling tool was coupled with: (1) a high level manufacturing/business system model,

2) a detailed representation of the anodising process, both of which were prepared by Riga Technical University.

These two simulation models were used for testing initial configuration of the scheduler and for iterative optimisation of its parameters and rules off-line prior to its implementation at Decorpart.

BENEFITS

The high level model of the entire business provided the following results:

1. If the response time for customer inquiries could be reduced by 5 %, the total revenue of the company would grow by about 10 %. The maximum revenue could be achieved if inquiry planning time would not exceed 6 minutes.

2. By introducing the automatic PREACTOR Supply Chain Server, a maximum response time of 6 minutes per inquiry can be achieved.

3. In this case, the number of cancelled orders can be decreased by 14-18%, which would cause the total value of confirmed orders to increase by 100% (or twice).

4. Instead of four planners, only one would be needed if the PREACTOR tool were introduced. Thus, employment cost of approx. 150 000 Euro per year can be saved.

The detailed model of the anodising stage led to the conclusion that improved sequencing rules for incoming orders in a week could reduce the total lead time of this stage by at least 4 hours, in some cases even by 19 hours.

As a result, the production rate of the anodising stage will go up by 10%, and a significant increase in equipment utilisation and reduction of unit manufacturing cost can be achieved.

Decorpart will save an amount equivalent to the total project costs in less than three months!!

It is clearly much faster, easier, safer and cheaper to test and optimise a production scheduler using a simulation model than using the real process.

It should be noted here that the approach used – to test and optimise planning and control tools off-line by using simulation models rather than using the real process – can be applied to many other software tools, to higher level (MRP; ERP tools) as well as to lower level control tools (MES, warehouse control systems, etc.)


Search		Legal notice