School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

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Browsing School of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering by Author "Abail, Mulugeta"

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    Production Performance Improvement by Simulation of a Footwear Manufacturing System in Tikur Abbay Shoe S.C
    (Addis Ababa University, 2020-10) Abail, Mulugeta; Ameha, Mulugeta (PhD); Daniel, Ashagrie (Mr.) Co-Adviser
    This study deals with capacity utilization and performance improvement using simulation modeling. Simulation is a powerful tool for bottleneck identification and analysis of the production lines in the footwear manufacturing system. The major problems of the case company are low output, high cycle time, high work in process, high waiting time, and low capacity utilization. In this study, the Arena and POM software were employed to model and to analyze the performance of the existing production lines. A military shoe was selected for analysis and improvement as it has the highest demand and highest number of operations. For each operation, the researcher has taken 25 sampling observations using a stopwatch. Processing times, machine failure times, distance between workstations, and manning level data were collected. All the collected data were statistically analyzed using Arena input analyzer for statistical significance and determination of expressions. A standard simulation model was developed and run for 160 replications. The simulation results show that the production lines are operating with capacity utilization of 55.67%, 55.47 %, 52.92%, and 54.22 % in cutting, stitching, lasting, and finishing production sections respectively. The researcher has revealed that bottlenecks have a high impact on performance and capacity utilization of the production facility. In the course of action, different types of scenarios have been developed and the best approach has been proposed. Thus, the simulation results demonstrate that the application of the proposed model could increase production output by 11.09%, 16.4%, 14.16%, 13.2%; decrease WIP by 54%, 39.9%, 44%, 23%; decrease cycle time by 9.98%, 14.13%, 16.39%, 11.6%; increase capacity utilization to 62.4%, 64.6%, 63.27%, 61.4% in the cutting, stitching, lasting, and finishing production sections. The cost-benefit analysis has also shown the addition of resources to bottleneck workstations could generate an additional annual minimum gross profit of 1,918,160 Birr. The proposed model enables production and operation managers for measuring and improving capacity utilization and performance of production lines which is the originality and core value of this study. Finally, it is recommended that the addition of resources on bottleneck