Implementation results
As stated in the methodology section, the implementation phase would be done in a
simulation model before a real application in the manufacturing plant. Arena 7.0
was used as a tool to demonstrate the outputs of the current and improved
practices. The improvement plan focused on the setup time reduction due to the
sheet size changes. The busy cost for the setup time was fixed $625/h and the same
fixed cost of $625/h was assigned to both busy and idle time for the sheeting
operation. The fixed cost was determined from the machine depreciation and hourly
labor cost.
Arena’s pre-built interface with Microsoft Visio, allows running simulation
directly from the process map of an operation developed in Visio. Derived from the
sheet cutting operation whose process map was developed in Microsoft
Visio (Figure 2), the Arena simulation modules were reorganized (Figure 3). The
process consisted of a create module, three assign modules, two read-write
modules, a decision module, two process modules, a separate module, and a dispose
module.