Production Line: Effect of Different Inspection Station Allocation

This paper intend to analyze a new production line in a metal stamping company based on the complain from the company and try to explore the better layout or arrangement in the production line in reflect to the complained problem and constrain of the provided of accept the defect and repair inspection policy. The production line is first being analyzed in response to complain through computer simulation. After the problem had been identified, the researcher tried different alternatives in the attempt to seek for the better layout or arrangement in the production line in regard of the inspection station allocation. The effect of different inspection station allocation layout is then being evaluated in term of the production time. After reducing the number of inspection station, interesting enough, the production time does not seem to decrease but increased. This finding contradicts the conventional thought of fewer stations means shorter time. This finding could be the founding basic in the future research regarding the allocation of the inspection station following certain provided policy. This is also very helpful in real life practice in company as to help them improve their production time. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.