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Procedia CIRP 12 (2013) 426 – 431

8th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering

Modelling, analysis and improvement of mass and small batch

production through advanced simulation tools
A. Caggianoa*, R. Tetia
a
Fraunhofer Joint Laboratory of Excellence on Advanced Production Technology (J_LEAPT),
Dept. of Materials and Production Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, Italy
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +39-0817682371 ; fax: +39-0817682362 . E-mail address: alessandra.caggiano@unina.it .

Abstract

The application of advanced numerical simulation tools for modelling, analysis and improvement of existing industrial
manufacturing cells is presented with reference to the development and implementation of the Digital Factory concept. Two real
case studies belonging to different industrial scenarios, i.e. mass and small batch production, are simulated with the aim of
improving specified performance measures related to manufacturing cells productivity, such as throughput or throughput time, and
utilization of resources. Diverse advanced simulation resources, including 3D Motion and Discrete Event Simulation tools, are
jointly applied to support decision making on manufacturing systems reconfiguration and improvement.

©
© 2013
2012 The
The Authors.
Authors. Published
Publishedby
byElsevier BV. Open
ElsevierB.V. access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Professor Roberto Teti.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Professor Roberto Teti
Keywords: Digital Factory; Manufacturing Cell; Discrete Event Simulation; 3D Motion Simulation;

performance measures which are essential to appreciate

1. Introduction
Contemporary manufacturing systems should be
subject to continuous upgrading consistent with the very
fast transformation of market requirements and the
frequent launch of technology innovations [1,2].
Methods based on mathematical analysis and physical
experimentation are often employed for the design and
improvement of manufacturing systems: however,
digital modelling and simulation tools can reduce design
time and cost in case of complex systems [3-6].
In the last years, a new approach based on digital
methodologies and tools has been developed to optimize
manufacturing systems design and reconfiguration: the
Digital Factory [7-12]. The latter represents a very
effective instrument for enhancing legacy manufacturing
systems as well as for conceiving entirely new systems.
In the Digital Factory approach, simulation has a
central function; it can be applied to support decision
making on the appropriate strategy to adopt as it allows
to map a set of decision variables to a proper set of
the behaviour of a manufacturing system [13-19].
Manufacturing performance measures offer the
capability to reproduce the actual state of a
manufacturing system, monitor and control the
operational efficiency, drive improvement strategies,
verify manufacturing decisions effectiveness [20-21].
The cooperative research work illustrated in this
paper has been carried out within the framework of an
Italy-Hungary joint activity. The latter is related to the
development and implementation of the Digital Factory
concept through the application of advanced numerical
simulation tools for modelling, analysis and
improvement of real industrial manufacturing systems
using diverse dedicated software resources.
The analysis and improvement of a manufacturing
cell are typically carried out through a decision making
process involving several issues to be taken into
consideration. Advanced simulation tools and their joint
employment are very effective to support this process, as
they allow to deal with a number of aspects as diverse as
facility layout, material handling system design,
manufacturing system capacity and throughput analysis.

2212-8271 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer review under responsibility of Professor Roberto Teti
doi:10.1016/j.procir.2013.09.073
 A. Caggiano and R. Teti / Procedia CIRP 12 (2013) 426 – 431
In this research work, the Digital Factory concept is
developed on the basis of real industrial cases; two
actual manufacturing cells relative to different industrial
scenarios, mass and small batch production, are
modelled and simulated via diverse simulation software
tools with the aim to examine and improve performance.
Discrete Event Simulation (DES) is employed to
analyse the two manufacturing cells in terms of
productivity, utilization of available resources and
bottlenecks. The visual and numerical analysis of the
simulation results are performed to suggest possible
improvement actions that could increase efficiency and
productivity of the manufacturing cells, and two
different approaches are employed to set up new
experiments in order to evaluate the effects of a
reconfiguration of the manufacturing cells. Furthermore,
to deal with manufacturing cell layout and robot motion,
3D motion simulation is employed to verify reachability
of objectives and safety of movements throughout the
manufacturing cell.
2. Small Batch Production Case Study
The first case study consists of a real manufacturing
cell of a small batch production plant belonging to the
aerospace sector. Small batch production in general is
characterised by large product variety, small production
volumes, great deviation of the product demand [20].
To improve the manufacturing cell performance,
different what-if production scenarios are experimented
on a digital basis by means of simulation models with
the aim to analyse and possibly enhance the resources
utilization and the batch throughput time, i.e. the time
required to produce a whole batch of components.
The existing manufacturing cell is dedicated to the
fabrication of a single aircraft engine component part
number through two subsequent grinding processes,
requiring further measuring and deburring. The facilities
consist of a grinding machine tool provided with its own
loading/unloading robot, a Coordinate Measuring
Machine (CMM) and a manual deburring station.
2.1. Detection of weak points
To date, deburring operations are performed manually
by a human operator following a procedure that requires
large experience, manual ability and mind concentration.
An inaccurate operation or human inattention can
produce severe damages to the processed component.
Since at the deburring stage much material has already
been removed and the component tolerances are quite
tight, these damages cannot be eliminated by repair
machining. Therefore, the component is exposed to a
high cost rejection due to the expensive raw material as
well as the significant processing already performed.
427
Fig. 1. Layout of the reconfigured manufacturing cell.
Moreover, ergonomics considerations prove that
manual material removal processes, such as deburring or
polishing, can often determine worker's injuries that
could be avoided by introducing a higher level of
automation based on devices such as robots.
2.2. Identification of possible areas of improvement
To reduce these risks and improve the manufacturing
cell performance, a reconfigured manufacturing cell
having an automated deburring cell provided with an
industrial robot has been designed. The layout of the
reconfigured manufacturing cell is shown in Fig. 1.
In this case study, two different digital simulation
tools are utilized for the design of the reconfigured
manufacturing cell: 3D Motion Simulation and Discrete
Event Simulation (DES).
2.3. 3D Motion Simulation: verification of reconfigured
cell layout and robotic issues
3D Motion Simulation is employed to analyze the
layout of the reconfigured manufacturing cell, with
particular care to the automated deburring cell, where a
new robot has been introduced.
A 3D model of the deburring robot with kinematics,
obtained from the software data base, allows to simulate
robot motion, while collision detection is employed to
plan safe paths within the deburring cell.
The employment of 3D Motion simulation proves
essential to allow for a virtual verification of the
activities that the robot has to carry out in the cell. Task
simulation allows to determine the most suitable
distance of the robot relative to the cell elements and
thus the layout and overall dimension of the deburring
cell. Tasks are created by placing targets, represented by
points, at proper locations all over the manufacturing
cell and assigning to each target the appropriate actions
to replicate the jobs of the robot.
Fig. 2 shows the 3D Motion Simulation model of the
reconfigured manufacturing cell, including the machine
tool, the CMM and the automated deburring cell.
428 A. Caggiano and R. Teti / Procedia CIRP 12 (2013) 426 – 431
Fig. 2. 3D motion simulation model of the manufacturing cell.
2.4. DES of the reconfigured manufacturing cell:
comparison of results and quantification of improvement
In order to evaluate the performance of the
reconfigured manufacturing cell in terms of throughput
time for a batch of products and utilization of resources,
a Discrete Event Simulation model is built on the basis
of the 3D motion simulation results concerning final
layout and robot motion, load and unload times.
Fig. 3. DES model of the automated manufacturing cell.
The first simulation reproduces the behaviour of the
current manufacturing cell, where deburring is
performed manually by a human labor. These simulation
results are employed as a reference to appreciate the real
changes introduced by the reconfiguration on the cell.
The new scenario, i.e. the reconfigured cell provided
with the automated deburring station (Fig. 3), is then
simulated to compare the results with those of the
existing cell. In this case, due to the presence of the
automated deburring cell, deburring is performed only
after both grinding processes: as soon as at least 3 fully
ground components are collected, they are introduced in
the automated deburring cell.
In both simulation cases, 3 shifts of 8 hours each,
with breaks distributed during the day, are considered
for the human labor, and the maximum availability of
the machine is set to 85%.
The results of the simulation runs in the existing
manufacturing cell model and the reconfigured cell
model show an analogous throughput time for a whole
batch of components: 61.4 hrs and 61.3 hrs, respectively.
Fig. 4 shows the comparison between the two
simulation cases in terms of utilization of elements: the
grinding machine is always the bottleneck of the cell
with a utilization around 83%.
It can be noticed that the utilization of the deburring
station is lower in the reconfigured automatic cell
(around 9%), as the handling/deburring robot is able to
perform deburring faster than the human labor: however,
this does not influence the throughput time for a batch of
components, since the bottleneck of the manufacturing
cell is represented by the grinding machine.
Fig.4. Utilization of the manufacturing cell resources:
Existent manual cell Reconfigured automatic cell.
This means that the main advantage of the automated
deburring cell in this case is related to higher reliability
and lower part rejection. However, the automated
deburring cell has a production capacity which is higher
than the one required by a single part number. In order to
increase the utilization of the automated deburring cell, a
new scenario is simulated, where external part numbers
are introduced into the cell only for deburring.
While the grinding machine processes the entire batch
of the original part number, the automated deburring cell
works on the external part number. A setup time of 30
min has been considered to switch between different part
numbers. As soon as the entire batch of the original part
number has been completely ground and measured, little
by little it is introduced in the deburring cell.
The simulation run of this scenario shows that the
utilization of the deburring cell increases from 9% to
44%, and the global throughput of the manufacturing
cell is much increased as it includes a large number of
external part numbers deburred (Fig. 5).
 A. Caggiano and R. Teti / Procedia CIRP 12 (2013) 426 – 431
Fig. 5. Utilization of the manufacturing cell resources:
Reconfigured cell Reconfigured cell with external part numbers.
3. Mass Production Case Study
The second case study concerns a manufacturing cell
in the framework of mass production: the industrial
scenario for this activity is an existent automated
manufacturing cell of the automotive sector.
The manufacturing cell is composed of several
elements: three machine tools (two of which are
identical
n and in parallel), two washing machines, a
turning station, two handling robots and a conveyor.
3.1. Discrete Event Simulation for desired throughput
level achievement
The objective of this research activity is to improve
the efficiency of the described manufacturing cell by
achieving the desired throughput level, expressed as the
number of produced units/day, giving information on the
rate at which work can be handled by the system.
In order to analyse the behaviour of the
manufacturing cell and investigate how to achieve this
objective, Discrete Event Simulation modelling is
carried out through Tecnomatix Plant Simulation
software. The resulting model is shown in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Layout of the manufacturing cell DES model (Tecnomatix).
429
A first simulation run is performed to obtain
numerical results on current manufacturing cell
throughput and utilization of resources, and to carry out
bottlenecks analysis to identify the critical components.
According to the simulation results, it appears that
the most critical components are represented by the three
machine tools, which have the highest utilization rates.
Each one of these elements is characterised by two main
parameters: process cycle time and machine availability
(defined by the MTBF Mean Time Between Failures
and the MTTR Mean Time To Repair).
In order to reach a specified throughput level, a
suitable combination of the 6 mentioned parameters -
process time and machine availability for each of the
three machine tools - should be identified: for this
purpose, two-level experimental design is carried out by
assigning two possible values to each parameter.
The number of potential experiments in a problem
with n decision variables, each with m discrete states, is
nm. In this case, n=6 and m=2, so the two level
experimental design programme generates 64 different
manufacturing system designs: the resultant throughput
level of each simulation run is reported in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. Throughput level for the 64 simulation runs.
Over the 64 experiments, 10 are identified as
acceptable to reach the desired throughput level:
decision making can be limited to these 10 different
combinations of machine availability and process times,
on the basis of further considerations on cost and time.
3.2. Discrete Event Simulation for manufacturing cell
balancing
With the aim to analyse the same case study with a
different approach, manufacturing cell DES modelling is
performed through Delmia QUEST software. The 3D
view of the manufacturing cell model is shown in Fig. 8.
The first simulation run is performed to compare the
results of this model in terms of throughput, utilization
of resources and bottlenecks analysis with those
obtained in the previous simulation.
430 A. Caggiano and R. Teti / Procedia CIRP 12 (2013) 426 – 431
Fig. 8. Layout of the manufacturing cell DES model (QUEST).
The comparison shows a close similarity between the
two simulation software models: a slight difference of
1% is found between the average throughput values.
In this case, the objective of the investigation is to
improve the balance of the manufacturing cell resources
and at the same time improve the throughput value.
Consistently with the previous model, the analysis of
the simulation results shows that the bottlenecks of the
cell are represented by the three machine tools which
have a very similar utilization, as illustrated in Fig. 9.
Fig. 9. Elements utilization in the first simulation run.
A multi-level experimental design with different
combinations of the 6 previously defined parameters
(process cycle times and availability of the 3 machine
tools) would require a very large number of experiments.
As it would not be reasonable to perform all nm
simulations to select the solution with the best
performance, another approach can be adopted.
In this case, a problem solving algorithm based on
Tabu search method is adopted to explore the solution
space economically and effectively without performing
all the nm simulations.
Tabu search is a meta-heuristic problem solving
approach based on adaptive memory and responsive
exploration [22]. Responsive exploration is based on the
idea that a bad strategic choice can yield more
information than a good random choice as it can provide
useful indications about how the strategy may be
profitably changed. Local choices are guided by
information collected during the research.
This technique integrates the basic principles of
intelligent search, i.e., exploiting good solution features
while exploring new promising regions.
Fig. 10. Elements utilization in the new model (tabu search solution).
As in the previous model, the decisional variables are
represented by the process cycle times and availability of
the 3 machine tools, varied within the same range of the
two-level experimental design illustrated before.
In this case, however, it is possible to provide a
direction to the research strategy by defining an
objective function to maximize/minimize, and imposing
requirements such as lower and upper bounds to specific
desired parameters.
In particular, with the aim to improve the
manufacturing cell balance, the requirement of a
utilization value around 34% is imposed to the three
machine tools, while the objective function to be
maximized is represented by the throughput value.
The Tabu search algorithm does not necessarily
imization
problem, but can lead to a very good answer to a
complex problem within a very short time.
In this case, the algorithm finds a suitable
combination of the 6 parameters, process cycle times
and availability, leading to a better balance of the
manufacturing cell and an improved throughput level.
The new simulation model set up with the values of
the 6 parameters identified by the algorithm gives new
results in terms of throughput (increased about 4%) and
utilization of resources, shown in Fig. 10.
 A. Caggiano and R. Teti / Procedia CIRP 12 (2013) 426 – 431
4. Conclusions
Different simulation software tools in the framework
of the Digital Factory concept implementation have been
applied to deal with two real case studies belonging to
diverse industrial scenarios, mass and small batch
production, with the aim of improving specified
performance measures related to manufacturing cells
productivity and time, such as throughput, throughput
time and utilization of resources.
In the first case study, the employment of 3D motion
simulation allowed to investigate the reconfiguration of
a small batch manufacturing cell in terms of layout,
robot path and safety of motion.
Then, Discrete Event Simulation was applied to
evaluate the performance of the reconfigured
manufacturing cell in terms of batch throughput time and
utilization of resources: the simulation results suggest
the possibility to increase the throughput of the
manufacturing cell by including external part numbers
and to augment the utilization of the deburring cell from
9% to 44%.
In the second case study, two different DES tools
were employed to analyse a manufacturing cell
belonging to mass production.
A two level experimental programme was applied to
investigate the possible improvement generated by
varying the values of 6 critical parameters, process time
and availability of the 3 bottleneck machines, and 10
different combinations were found to be acceptable to
reach a specified throughput level.
Then, a different approach based on tabu search was
employed to find a suitable solution to the problem of
improving the balance of the manufacturing cell and
increasing the throughput.
Acknowledgements
This research work was carried out within the
framework of the Executive Program of Scientific and
Technological Co-operation between Italy and Hungary,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, under the Joint Project on:
University of Technology & Economics, Budapest,
Hungary (2011-2013).
The Fraunhofer Joint Laboratory of Excellence on
Advanced Production Technology (Fh - J_LEAPT) at
the Department of Materials and Production
Engineering, University of Naples Federico II, is
gratefully acknowledged for its support to this research
activity.
431
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