Hybrid Integrations of Value Stream Mapping, Theory of Constraints and Simulation: Application to Wooden Furniture Industry

Emad Alzubi,Sima Sunna,John Damiani,Khaleel Abu Shgair,Anas M Atieh,Abdallah Madi

doi:10.3390/pr7110816

Emad Alzubi, Sima Sunna + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/pr7110816

Copy DOI

Abstract

This paper studies manufacturing processes in a wooden furniture manufacturing company. The company suffers from long manufacturing lead times and an unbalanced production line. To identify sources of waste and delay value stream mapping (VSM) and a discrete event simulation model is implemented. VSM is used to visualize and analyze the major processes of the company and provide quantifiable KPIs; the manufacturing lead-time and then Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) settings. A discrete event simulation model is then built to analyze the company on a wider scale and provide the data required to identify bottlenecks. Building on the data gathered from the production lines and the simulation model, two-bottleneck detection methods are used, the utilization method, and the waiting time method. Then based on the comparison of the two methods a third bottleneck detection is utilized; the scenario-based method, to identify the primary and secondary bottlenecks. After the bottlenecks are identified, changes are then evaluated using the simulation model and radar charts were built based on the improved simulation model, which evaluates the effect of changes in the utilization and OEE results. This work managed to neutralize the effect of one of the main bottlenecks and minimize the effect of the other. The manufacturing utilization was increased by 15.8% for the main bottleneck resources followed by 2.4% for the second one. However, it is hard to convince the traditional administration of this small size manufacturing plant to adopt a completely revolutionizing, costly, and risky (at such level) lean manufacturing approach. This paper studies and provides a much lower in cost and verified scheme of enhancement.

Highlights

One of the biggest challenges for manufacturing companies is usually cutting cost and improving production as the competitiveness of such companies rely on the balance of reasonable pricing and quality of products
value stream mapping (VSM) were created for the three processes and an Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) analysis is conducted in parallel from the collected data
Simulation models were built based on the VSMs, and the simulation models and OEE data were validated by comparing the results to the real-life values and production figures

Summary

Introduction

One of the biggest challenges for manufacturing companies is usually cutting cost and improving production as the competitiveness of such companies rely on the balance of reasonable pricing and quality of products. Lean manufacturing is a revolutionary philosophy that identifies non-value-adding activities as waste and aims to eliminate such activities from all processes [1,2,3,4]. VSM can be defined as all the value-added and non-value-added actions required to bring the product through the necessary flow needed to convert raw material from the suppliers into a final product in the arms of a customer [5]. VSM helps in identifying sources of waste, as well as in discovering and deciding on the lean tools to be used for the elimination of this waste [4,6]. In spite of the effectiveness of lean tools, there are many challenges in their implementation, as they usually require drastic changes to current setups, which proves costly

Methods

Results

Conclusion