Högskolan i Skövde

his.sePublications
Change search
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf
Analysis of material flow and simulation-based optimization of transportation system: The combination of simulation and Lean to evaluate and design a transportation system
University of Skövde, School of Engineering Science.
University of Skövde, School of Engineering Science.
2018 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (degree of Bachelor), 20 credits / 30 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

The thesis has been performed in cooperation with a Swedish manufacturing company. The manufacturing site of the company is currently implementing a new machine layout in one of its workshops. The new layout will increase the product flow to another workshop on the site. The goal of the thesis was to evaluate the current transportation system and suggest viable alternatives for the future product flow. By means of discrete event simulation these alternative solutions would be modelled and subsequently optimized to determine if their performance is satisfactory. An approximated investment cost of the solutions would also be estimated.

By performing a literature review and creating a frame of reference, a set of relevant methodologies were selected to provide a foundation to the project. Following these methodologies, the current state of transportation was identified and mapped using Value Stream Mapping. Necessary data from the current flow was identified and collected from the company computer systems. This data was deemed partly inaccurate and further verification was needed. To this end, a combination of Genchi Genbutsu, assistance from onsite engineers and a time study was used to verify the unreliable data points. The data sets from the time study and the company data which was deemed valid were represented by statistical distributions to provide input for the simulation models.

Two possible solutions were picked for evaluation, an automated guided vehicle system and a tow train system. With the help of onsite personnel, a Kaizen Event was performed in which new possible routing for the future flow was evaluated. A set of simulation models portraying the automated guided vehicle system and the tow train system were developed with the aid of simulation software. The results from these models showed a low utilization of both systems. A new set of models were developed, which included all the product flows between the workshops. The new flows were modelled as generic pallets with the arrival distribution based on historical production data. This set of models were then subject for optimization with regard to the work in process and lead time of the system. The results from the optimization indicates the possibility to reduce the overall work in process by reducing certain buffer sizes while still maintaining the required throughput. These solutions were not deemed to be ready for implementation due to the low utilization of the transportation systems. The authors instead recommend expanding the scope of the system and including other product flows to reach a high utilization.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2018. , p. 66
Keywords [en]
FACTS, simulation, AGV, transportation, system, lean, lean production, optimization, SMO, SBO, multi-objective, discrete, event, discrete-event, DES, simulation-based, material handling, kaizen, time study
Keywords [sv]
simulering, optimering, transport, värdeflödesanalys
National Category
Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:his:diva-15974OAI: oai:DiVA.org:his-15974DiVA, id: diva2:1233050
Subject / course
Automation Engineering
Educational program
Manufacturing Engineer
Supervisors
Examiners
Available from: 2018-07-19 Created: 2018-07-14 Last updated: 2018-07-19Bibliographically approved

Open Access in DiVA

fulltext(1969 kB)396 downloads
File information
File name FULLTEXT01.pdfFile size 1969 kBChecksum SHA-512
99a946c1e0039aee70cbe63ae4e981c447aa1960ee3b536a07368d8bcd9e712ce51be3d4e87061b65b936d3e4eae2199e80a09c051d636f014c58353583f2a02
Type fulltextMimetype application/pdf

Search in DiVA

By author/editor
Vuoluterä, Fredrik
By organisation
School of Engineering Science
Production Engineering, Human Work Science and Ergonomics

Search outside of DiVA

GoogleGoogle Scholar
Total: 396 downloads
The number of downloads is the sum of all downloads of full texts. It may include eg previous versions that are now no longer available

urn-nbn

Altmetric score

urn-nbn
Total: 1021 hits
CiteExportLink to record
Permanent link

Direct link
Cite
Citation style
  • apa
  • apa-cv
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf