Component and process commonalities in production system under various uncertain factors

Abstract

In this paper, the authors studied the effects of process and component/part commonality and uncertain factors (viz. lead time, machine breakdown etc.) on deliverable parameters of a multi product, multi-period and multistage dependent demand manufacturing environment. The throughput of finished products and average production time of the system are examined for various experimental scenarios on the basis of existing manufacturing setup of a company consisting of multiple end products. Simulation package, namely WITNESS is used to simulate/analyze the situations of the production lines. Simulation models are developed, verified and validated with the historical data from the company. It is found that inclusion of common components in manufacturing system is always beneficial over the non-commonality environment, especially i) in uncertain situations, ii) for long procurement lead time of components and iii) when the number of parts increase in the system. Impacts of machine breakdown on system outcomes are higher than that of the lead time variation. The combination of uncertain factors has more impact on outcomes (throughput and average production time) compared to the individual factor. Commonality has a better control over the machine breakdown than lead time uncertainty. Component commonality is more effective for a production environment under uncertain situations than the process commonality.