Discrete Event Simulation for Manufacturing Performance Management and Optimization: A Case Study for Model Factory

Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is a robust tool that can strongly support manufacturers in various aspects and stages of production processes thanks to its great agility. There are numerous studies on applications of DES that can be found in the literature. The applications can be designs of production processes, optimization of facility layouts and process parameters, and improvement of performance by relieving bottlenecks. However, there are barely applications of DES as a tool for manufacturing performance management in the literature. In addition, the topic of utilization and management of data generated by DES has not been comprehensively discussed. In response to these research gaps, this paper presents of a case study of using DES for the production process of the Model Factory at the Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), Singapore. In this use case, the DES model of a manufacturing process with the industrial gearbox as the product is created. Simulated data from this model is subsequently stored in a production database which an IoT platform can access and use to calculate production Key Performance Indicators (KPI). These simulated KPIs can be used as the baseline for the purpose of manufacturing performance management. Finally, another use case where the DES model is used to optimize process and design parameters of the production flow is also demonstrated in the paper.