Manufacturing System Design using Simulation in Metal Industry towards Education 4.0

Abstract

Abstract As the industrial requirements change at a rapid pace due to the drastic evolution of technology, the necessity of quickly investigating potential system alternatives towards a more efficient manufacturing system design arises more intensively than ever. The Industry 4.0 era supplied manufacturing systems with new technologies aiming to digitalise the modern factory and as such plenty of alternatives, relevant to its design, are generated. In order to evaluate the impact of a suggested solution, realistic validation is required before its implementation in the production. Production system simulation software is commonly utilised for this purpose. As the complexity of the production system rises and new technologies are integrated, academia can assist the manufacturers to deal with these problems, taking care of the complex modelling. The theoretical backbone offered by universities, paired with the experience of the production engineers can be proven a powerful tool for the evolution of today’s manufacturing systems. The Teaching Factory paradigm constitutes the missing link that aims to bridge the gap between academia and industry. In the current study, the design and evaluation of a real manufacturing system, using discrete event simulation and based on real data obtained from the metal industry, are presented in the context of a Teaching Factory paradigm. The current production system is modelled under the guidance of the metal industry’s expert engineers and real production data are utilised in the created model. A channel of remote communication has been established supported by ICT infrastructure, so as to facilitate data and knowledge exchange. The impact identification of the individual parameters on the response of the system is accomplished towards the selection of the proper configurations for enhanced throughput. A real-life pilot case from a copper industry is presented where the conclusions indicate the good prospects that arise out of this two-way communication.