Capacity design: an application using discrete-event simulation and designed experiments

The use of front-end engineering techniques by a major world-class manufacturing company, to improve decision making on capacity planning, capital equipment selection and control strategies, is discussed. In particular, attention is focused on the modeling and analysis of a sequential plastic parts manufacturing line using discrete-event simulation. The use of simulation allied to designed experiments leads to the design of a semi-automated manufacturing line. The line could be built using standard equipment rather than custom-built equipment resulting in considerable cost savings. Using the model to obtain the control strategy before the actual production equipment was in place enabled the line to be commissioned in a shorter time than normal.