Simulation on the Push/Conwip Control Mode for Manufacturing Process

Abstract

This research was conducted using simulation optimization methods to solve the bottleneck problem in manufacturing process, aiming at optimize the system performance. The Petri nets is used to describe the production process under Push/Conwip control mode for a typical JIT flexible manufacturing system. The ExSpect simulation platform is used to analog JIT flexible manufacturing system production process. A large amount of simulation tests have been done, with different quantity of demands and different buffer size limitation. Simulation processes give out visual description of the machine utilization, the position of bottleneck, and the relationship between the number of Kanban with the system performance, as well as the characteristics of control modes, and other helpful information. Simulation results show that the problem of bottleneck or hunger of the production line can be solve by setting bottleneck area kanban number and buffer size; and setting processing ratio between bottleneck area and parallel area can eliminate the bottleneck and improve system performance.