The topological impact of discrete manufacturing systems on the effectiveness of production processes

Abstract

The structure of a manufacturing system plays an important role in the effectiveness- and the work-in-progress- of production processes. In this paper, the impact on the throughput and average lifespan of products of different topologies, within a discrete manufacturing system, including production resources and buffers, is analysed. In order to analyse the behaviour of the system’s computer simulation software, Tecnomatix Plant Simulation is employed. The topology of the system is expanded from the simple production line to the rather more complex structure of two production lines with different, interconnection variants between buffers and production resources. For each topology of a given manufacturing system, a set of simulation experiments is prepared. The input values of the simulation experiments, along with the different allocation of buffer capacities, is taken into account. The output values are the manufacturing system’s throughput, along with the average lifespan of the prod ucts, which indicate the work-in-progress.