Improving productivity of a multi-product machining line at a motorcycle manufacturing plant

Abstract

This paper introduces a case study to improve productivity of a multi-product transmission case machining line at a motorcycle manufacturing plant. First, the manufacturing process is introduced to characterise the production flow. Through structural modelling, such a process is simplified through aggregations and transformed into a two-stage Bernoulli line model with split dedicated machines and finite buffers. Using Markov chain analysis, the system throughput can be estimated. The results are validated by plant data. To improve system productivity, through numerical experiments, we investigate the impacts of increasing machine efficiency, varying demands and implementing different loading policies. Such a study provides a quantitative tool for plant engineers and managers to improve production operations.

Keywords:

• multiple products
• Bernoulli reliability model
• productivity improvement
• motorcycle manufacturing
• Markov chain

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Y. Zhang, Z. Lu and R. Doshi of University of Wisconsin-Madison for their help in this work, and managers and engineers of the motorcycle manufacturing plant for their support in this project.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.