The efficiency analysis of a manufacturing system by TOPSIS technique and simulation

Abstract

Designing manufacturing systems have been a great concern since the past and due to the increase of the global competitions and quick technological advancements, this issue has found a greater significance and has become one of the managers’ greatest concerns and challenges. One of the most important problems in production lines is their lack of balance which leads to the inefficiency of the manufacturing system. This lack of efficiency causes the increase of the production cycle and idle time, which can cause the increase of production rate, transportation and waiting-time, and system cost. In this research and in order to analyse the manufacturing system which is under study, simulation and multi-criteria decision-making tools are applied. In fact, the managers at first determine the improvement options. Then their decision making criteria of interest are selected and finally the optimum solutions are looked for among the proposed combinatory options. In this study, each proposed combinatory option is analysed via simulation tools, the results of each decision-making criterion are evaluated through TOPSIS method and the best ones are selected to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing system.