1.

1 Description of System

The plant which was described in the problem description has explained in the following
section in order to have a deeper detail into the model. The gear which is manufactured in an
outside plant comes to the plant and feed to the Conveyor belt. The gear manufactured
outside the world has 80mm x 80mm x 100 mm and it is fed to 20m length conveyor. The
conveyor feeds the assembly unit where the gear assembles with bearing and casting to form
gearbox. The maximum capacity of the conveyor is 180 parts and the speed is 5 m/min.
Bearings are drawn to Assembly at the other hand and casting to CNC.

The castings are drawn to CNC machine to machine and bore it. An Operator is assigned to
load and unload the parts to the machines. The cycle time was distributed uniform in CNC
machine for loading and unloading, where for 0.5 minutes to 1.0 minutes for loading and
maximum of 0.9 minutes for unloading. The time for machining in the CNC will take 2.3
minutes. The inspection is done for every 20th gearbox passed through the CNC and the other
gearboxes go to the buffer called bin, the maximum capacity of the Bin is 50 parts. The cycle
time is triangularly distributed in inspection station, where 0.8 minutes minimum and
maximum of 2.2 minutes. Plant details are given in the problem description and it is used to
design the model in order to find the revenue of the plant.

1. Methodology

The background and methods related to the modelling and the system has been discussed in
the following section.
1.1 Petri Net
Petri net is the basis for the modelling of this plant which has stochastic system with discrete
event. Ling (2001) said that Petri net method was introduced by Carl Adam Petri in the year
1962. This method can be used to model a distributed system with concurrency,
synchronization, distribution, parallel, nondeterministic or stochastic (Ling, 2001and
Murata1989). It can be used as an aid to communicate which gives an overview like flow
chart, block diagrams and similar mathematical tools.

The Petri net comes from Carl Adam Petri’s dissertation which give chances for both
practitioners and theoreticians to communicate between them (Murata, 1989). Murata (1989)
in his paper said that after Petri introduces the method there were many active research
conducted on this method, which was especially by computer structure group of MIT. Petri
net have permissiveness inherent and generality due to that this method can be used in wide
range of applications. Parallel and concurrent activities can be denoted using Petri net even
though it has complexity problem. Computer aided tools has been used to do the Petri net
practically (Murata, 1989).

Petri net has two kinds of nodes, which are places and transitions. Places represent the
condition of the system using a circle where the transition is denoted by bars which represent
the condition of the system. The connection between the transition to places and (or) places to
transition are connected using the Arcs. The set of places and transitions are denoted by m
and n. The pre incidence matrix denotes the direction of arcs from places towards transitions,
whereas the direction of arc from transition to places is said as post incidence matrix (Fanti,
n.d).

Yang (2014) said that when looking at the examples which as shown in the figure 2a & 2b the
buffers or queues turned from places and processes become from the transitions. In the
example explained the transition has a time. When the inputs are fully marked in the system,
after a pre-determined time they fire. In this example, parts arrive at every 6 minutes whereas
the process takes 10 minutes, this can be seen in fig.2b. It is the raw idea about the Petri net
with the discrete event simulation.

1.2 Modelling
The system is modelled using WITNESS, a short brief about the
witness was given in the introduction of the report. WITNESS is discrete event stochastic
system simulation software which is supplied by Lanner Group. Inc. There are four main
components used to model the system. They are parts, machines, buffers, variables and
function.

The parts are taken to the machines as per the required modelling. The parts which are used
in this system are gears, castings and bearings, which then makes into gearboxes. The buffers
are used to as a special function in the system to act as bin, testing and other supportive
actions, which are very important. And the variables give the way to their actions to be done
in the system. For example, in inspection station, it says that 78% of the parts will be in the
upper tolerance limit and the CNC has to be cleaned. This function in the system has been
done with the help of the variable, as shown in the program structure below.

IF Binomial ( 0.78,20 ) < N passed

CleanCNC =1

N passed =0

ELSE

N passed =N passed +1

ENDIF

The actions for start till finish have to be defined in each component in the system. ‘PULL’
and ‘PUSH’ can be used to take or give the process with another. Each component in the
system has its own functionality and importance in the system to work with. The operations
in the system can be controlled by operator(s), when there is multitalented operator the
necessity number of operator is less. These functions and operators in the system could lead
to the revenue management of the model. Operator’s shift and the revenue of the system can
be also managed in this. The program structure which shows above has a binomial function in
order to replicate the fact that for every 20 parts there is a chance of getting 78% parts near
the upper tolerance limit. And cleaning the CNC can be done with the variable and after the
CNC has cleaned the N passed variable can be used to make the system to next.

The input rule for the assembly machine has to be done in sequence because each part has to
be assembled to get a gearbox. The casting, gear and bearing are sequentially taken to the
system from their respective source and it is done in the structure as below.

SEQUENCE/Wait Casting out of Bin ¿(1),

Gear out of Conveyor Belt at Front ¿ (2),

Bearingsout of WORLD ¿(2)

After the assembly, all the parts have been changed to gearbox in the system by giving the
function in the ACTION ON FINISH of the Assembly. The function was

CHANGE ALL to Gearbox

The gearbox is assembled and it has to be tested in another machine. Before the gearboxes go
to the test machine it has sent to the test buffer and tested, further testing has done in the test
machine. There is a chance that the 93% passes the test whereas 7 % fails to clear it. This has
been found from the previous operations done which is explained in the case. The failed
gearboxes go to the disassembly station and the product is disassembled and the bearings and
castings go to the scrap while the gears go to the conveyor belt.

The operator shift can be selected and managed in several ways. It can be done by giving
proper shifts with off or without. The duration of the shift can be given. The description asks
for a 10 day work, which can be duration of 2 weeks, with 2 days off in a week. These have
to be given appropriately in order to replicate the real system.

1.2.1 Revenue
The cost and revenue of the system can be defined in the using the witness. It is possible to
determine the machine rate, cost function for a plant etc. To find the machine rate, the time
required to get back the money paid for the machine, the time required to run by the machine
to get the money back. As well as the machine rate the cost function for a plant can be done
(Yang, 2014).

It has to be done based on the direct and indirect cost. For example, we have to divide the
cost of a machine by some period of time, say 3 years. And the cost of that machine is
£12000. And the operator cost can be also find for an hour, as like these the costs has to be
identified for all. And the actual revenue can be calculated for the system using these results
(Yang, 2014 and Lanner.com, 2008).

The revenue for the given system can be found using the equation 1. The parts of the
equations are defined from the way explained earlier. Thus the revenue of this system can be
identified. Yang (2014) explained that the revenue of the system has to be maximum.

RETURN NShip (Gearbox)∗80−¿

NQty( CNC)∗12+ NQty (Test Buffer )∗0.1+¿

NQty( Test Bench )∗1.1+ NQty (Operator )∗16.35 ¿∗80 (eq.1)

Lanner.com (2008) in their website stated many case study about the companies which had
improved their revenue and production with the help of Witness analysis. It is clear to look
after the revenue of the system to know the characteristics and to improve the system.
 1.2.2 Budget
The budget to set up the plant has been allocated as described in the plant description. It is
given fifteen thousand pounds to set up the plant, excluding the CNC. There are several costs
incurred with any plants, the costs can be described as direct cost and indirect cost (Yand,
2014). All the costs related to the system have to be contained within the given budget. There
is a list of machines which have to be incurred in the budget calculation and compared with
the revenue which gives the best from the plant. The formula (Eq.2) which is updated in the
budget function is as below.

Return NQty( Assembly )∗1800+ NQty (Bin)∗200+¿

Nqty (Test Bench)∗2200+ NQty(Operator )∗1500 (eq.2)

1.2.3 Optimization

A case study which was done at Volkswagen by its Industrial Engineering department of
Slovakia used WITNESS to optimize the new production and logistics system in the firm.
This resulted them to get a better output in the company (Lanner.com, 2003). As Volkswagen
done optimization using the WITNESS several other organizations use the same to improve
their functionalities. The optimization in the simulation is a valuable technique which can be
used for business process behavior investigation. The simulation optimization can be used to
find the mathematical and statistical reports which can be used to find the most optimal
favorable output with managing the input to the system (Chramcov, 2013).

Chramcov (2013) explained that optimization can be used to orchestrate the simulation of a
system’s sequence which would provide an optimal solution. Lanner group provide
optimization mode for the purpose of testing different combinations in the model which can
be used to find the best among them (Markt and Mayer, 1997). Chramcov (2013) explained
that Hill climb algorithm is the basis to do the optimization, the work also give detail
statistics and results of an example with optimization. The result from the optimization
should be low production cost, high revenue or higher throughput level. The optimization in a
system is to maximize or minimize a particular function by making up the inputs related to it.
This model has also been subjected to optimization for the same reason that the results has to
be the best and with those results the organization can improve their key goal, improve their
profit. There are several mathematical algorithms used for optimization, Hill climb is one
among them and it has been used in this work.

Juels and Wattenberg(1994) explained Hill climbing by looking at the optimization as a

landscape where the height of each point and the solution for each ‘s’ corresponds to the
fitness of the solution(f(s)), then with a higher fitness hill climb surge to a peak by moving to
nearby state. It can be used to search for solution space.

Hill climbing follows several simple steps, which starts from picking a random point in the
search space. Then the neighboring of the current state has to be considered, and the neighbor
with the best quality has been chosen and moved to that place. Repeat the method till all the
neighboring states become lower quality (Kendall, n. d.). This algorithm is the basis for the
hill climb and it is used in the optimization of the system.

1.2.4 Breakdown
Waller (2010) says about the breakdown that “A key cause of variability in manufacturing systems
can be the breakdown of equipment. The science of modelling breakdowns is, to my mind,
underdeveloped.” So for every system there will be a breakdown to be considered and it is possible to
depict that in WITNESS. Different causes of interruption in machine at multiple breakdowns can be
interpreted in WITNESS, the distribution has to be chosen well. The behavior of the distributions
curve can be differing from the real life one to the system curve, which leads from a few failures
(Waller, 2010).

There are two options of modeler in witness when the system breakdown. One of them is to retain the
part in the cycle and after the repair is done the cycle continues with the same part. The second option
is to scrap the part and after repairing a new cycle starts with a new part (Tague, 2010). The
breakdown for the system has to be considered while doing this model. It was told to consider 90
minutes breakdown time in the system. As the name says the breakdown time denote the time taken to
repair the machine along with the breaking down. It is necessary to define and display the machine
appropriately before detailing the breakdown (Lanner, 2008).

Breakdown Counter has been used in the system to show the number of breakdown occur. The time
between breakdown for the Conveyor is 10000 minutes whereas for the CNC is 50000 minutes. The
function used to count the number of breakdown is as below.

Breakdown counter=Breakdown_counter+1