Introduction

An engineering company needed to more fully understand the workings of a bicycle factory system. Flexsim created a simulation model for them of an imaginary bicycle factory, Swoosh, which works very similarly to existing factories.

The Problem

The system has many potential bottleneck points where excess parts can queue up.There are many machines that produce parts that are welded with other parts to combine into a finished bike.Each machine needs to produce at a rate relative to the others to not overproduce certain parts.The system also contains many operators required to transport parts, set up machines, inspect the process, and repair the machines.

Each section of the factory has to work together without getting an excess of certain parts waiting in queues.Surplus parts require storage facilities and cause the machines to work in an inefficient manner.The optimal number of workers to create smooth throughput without large bottlenecks was also to be ascertained based on the model.

The Model

The model was built to easily change the number of machines and operators. A custom dialog window was created for adding machine set up times, processing times, MTBF (mean time between failures), MTTR (mean time to repair), conveyor speeds, and other such variables.This simple input format allowed the user of the model to easily change variables and run the model to quickly test certain scenarios. Output from the model was generated and exported to Excel. Utilization graphs of the operators were also important to the data gathered from the model.

Results

The engineering company has used the model to understand and demonstrate the intricacies of the system. Data collected from the model showed the importance of certain aspects of the bicycle factory system that were otherwise disregarded. The 3d animation helped the company visualize the entire process and recognize where improvements could be made.