The simulation-based production decision has been eventually
accepted by a lot of automobile manufacturers to quickly adjust
the assembly line for achieving the higher labor utilization and the
lower production cost while maintaining the required throughput
for market demands. A generic comprehensive framework for the
data driven production modeling and simulation methodology is
developed in the paper and applied to a typical automotive GA
plant to quickly and automatically generate simulation model for
production analysis.
An IDEF1X information model is developed to describe the
static and dynamic entities in the GA plant. The different assembly
line configurations, such as the serial line, the parallel line and the
merging line are modeled and integrated with a JIT pull mode
martial handling system including an E-KANBAN for parts delivery.
The assembly line modules and the material handling modules are
developed and connected by the reorders from the stations. The
methodology is realized in ARENA environment with SIMAN/VBA
custom control code. The research further refines the model and
the control logic by verification & validation processes. The
significance of the research includes:
(1) It provides a ‘‘rapid prototyping’’ methodology for the
production simulation and analysis. It enhances the production
decision process for a complex, dynamic system.
(2) It enables the re-modeling and updating capabilities based on
the dynamic changes and real-time data while maintaining the
same basic functionality. Thus the modeling and simulation
burden is dramatically reduced.
(3) It provides a data driven approach to integrate two dynamic
systems, the assembly production system and the material
handling system in one simulation model for comprehensive
analysis.
In the future, several issues need to be further explored. First,
the required production data should be collected automatically
and directly from the IT system ofthe company, and then stored in
database with suitable format. Manual data collection and entry
may be a time consuming and error-prone process [32]. It is
indispensable to build a data-link between the IT systems of the
plant floor and the data driven simulator. With these rapidly
accessible production data, a real time simulation can be
ultimately achieved for the short term simulation and the real
time control of the plant floor. Secondly, a lot of commercial
simulation packages are used widely in different manufacturers
[36]. The data driven approach requires the simulation software to
provide application program interface, which is multifarious in
program languages, for communication between the external
data and the internal events/entities. Thus, many template files/
modules should be developed for the different softwares. The
method in this paper can be extended and applied to the other
simulation packages. Thirdly, the data driven simulator is just a
what-if analysis tool which must have the production plan as the
input. As for the GA plant, the assembly line balancing and the
material handling issues (e.g. the driver quantity, the working
zone of drivers) should be optimized concurrently for the whole
plant, which will serve as the input data of the developed simulator.