Bottling Process Improvement Analyzing Failures with Simulation
Bottling Process Improvement Analyzing Failures with Simulation
Alvaro A. González
Reinaldo J. Moraga
Francisco J. Ramis
Department of Industrial Engineering
Universidad del Bío-Bío
Concepción, Chile
ABSTRACT
In this paper the impact of the idle times is analyzed due to failures in a bottling process line by using simulation techniques. In the case study of this paper, all the failures are produced by fallen bottle in several points throughout the conveyor line. One way to overcome this problem is allocating a worker to each point where the falling of bottles is produced. The simulation was used to evaluate different scenarios where the worker allocation gets the best impact in terms of reduction of failures, which results in a higher rate of production. The paper presents a statistical analysis to validate the simulation model as well as the use of Bonferroni’s [1] approach to compare several scenarios. The main conclusion is that by reducing the failures in the washing process area significant increase of the production is obtained. Results and analysis of this case study are presented in detail. Keywords: Simulation, Failures, Multiple Comparisons, Bottling Process
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper presents an analysis performed by using simulation to capture the impact of failures produced at different points throughout bottling process. This case study corresponds to a bottling company called Embonor S.A., in Concepción, Chile. The company possesses two production lines and bottles around 13 types of different formats and sizes. The bottles circulate through a conveyor, where they are processed by different production resources, i.e., washing machine, filling machine, capping machine, inspection, etc. In general, the environment of this bottling process can be associated to a flow shop. Figure 1 presents the bottling production line one of the company where this study was carried on. Every time that a bottle falls, an idle time takes
Alvaro A. González
Reinaldo J. Moraga
Francisco J. Ramis
Department of Industrial Engineering
Universidad del Bío-Bío
Concepción, Chile
ABSTRACT
In this paper the impact of the idle times is analyzed due to failures in a bottling process line by using simulation techniques. In the case study of this paper, all the failures are produced by fallen bottle in several points throughout the conveyor line. One way to overcome this problem is allocating a worker to each point where the falling of bottles is produced. The simulation was used to evaluate different scenarios where the worker allocation gets the best impact in terms of reduction of failures, which results in a higher rate of production. The paper presents a statistical analysis to validate the simulation model as well as the use of Bonferroni’s [1] approach to compare several scenarios. The main conclusion is that by reducing the failures in the washing process area significant increase of the production is obtained. Results and analysis of this case study are presented in detail. Keywords: Simulation, Failures, Multiple Comparisons, Bottling Process
1. INTRODUCTION
This paper presents an analysis performed by using simulation to capture the impact of failures produced at different points throughout bottling process. This case study corresponds to a bottling company called Embonor S.A., in Concepción, Chile. The company possesses two production lines and bottles around 13 types of different formats and sizes. The bottles circulate through a conveyor, where they are processed by different production resources, i.e., washing machine, filling machine, capping machine, inspection, etc. In general, the environment of this bottling process can be associated to a flow shop. Figure 1 presents the bottling production line one of the company where this study was carried on. Every time that a bottle falls, an idle time takes
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