Capacity analysis of a brake shoe manufacturing plant

Capacity Analysis and Improvement in a Brake Shoe Manufacturing Company Using Simulation
1Faheem M. Hussain, K. Krishnaiah Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering Guindy, Anna University
Chennai - 600025
[e-mail]

Abstract— In today’s increasingly competitive world, it is important to constantly improve productivity and quality, be it a manufacturing or service industry. Quality with quantity is a main characteristic which helps a company stay in the competition. Technology has taken leaps of development lately and this has brought about an increase in the customer demands. One such situation is developing in a small scale brake shoe manufacturing company, Brakes and Automotive Industry, Chennai. The company is in need of improvement in production capacity, which is the objective of this project. The main aim is to study the current capacity, analyse it to find areas of improvement and make an improvement proposal to meet the forecasted increase in demand. Simulation modelling and analysis approach is used in this study as it offers flexibility and helps analyse a wide range of factors. The current plant model is developed using Arena Simulation software and the current capacity is assessed. It is found that the current capacity does not meet the forecasted demand. Therefore, Bottleneck processes are identified and improvements are suggested to eliminate the bottlenecks in order to meet the forecasted demand.

Keywords— Capacity Analysis, Simulation, Arena, Manufacturing, Capacity Improvement
I. Introduction
As the twenty first century begins, the global marketplace continues to grow stronger. To stay competitive, companies need to make long as well as short-term capacity decision with proper planning. This paper documents a simulation study in a Brake Shoe Manufacturing Company. The current maximum production capacity of the plant is 46,000 Brake Shoes per month. The Company is expecting an increase in demand in the

References: [1] U. S. Karmarkar, S. Kekre and S. Kekre, “Capacity Analysis of a Manufacturing Cell,” Journal of Manufacturing Systems, vol. 6, no. No. 3, 1987. [2] N. S. Gujarathi and T. Gupta, “Production Capactiy Analysis of a Shock Absorber Assembly Line Using Simulation,” in Proceedings of the 2004 Winter Simulation Conference, 2004. [3] A. M. Law and M. G. McComas, “Simulation of Manufacturing Systems,” in Proceedings of the 1997 Winter Simulation Conference, 1997. [4] P. H. Koo, C. L. Moodie and J. J. Talavage, “Performance Evaluation of Manufacturingj Systems: A Spreadsheet Model,” Computer ind. Engng, vol. 26, no. 4, pp. pp.673-688, 1994. [5] H. A. ElMaraghy, I. B. Abdallah and W. H. ElMaraghy, “On-Line Simulation and Control in Manufacturing Systems,” Annals of the CIRP, vol. 47, 1998. [6] A. Grando and F. Turoo, “Modelling Plant capacity and productivity : Conceptual framework in a single - machine case,” Production, planning & control, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 309-352, 2005. [7] R. B. Mat Tahar and A. A. J. J. Adham, “Design and Analysis of Automobiles Manufacturing System Based on Simulation Model,” Modern Applied Science, vol. 4, no. 7, 2010. [8] M. Kumru, “Determining the capcity and its level of utilization in make-to-order manufacturing : A simple deterministic model for single-machine multiple-product case,” Journal of Manufacturing Systems, vol. 30, pp. 63-69, 2011. [9] S. H. Melouk, N. K. Freeman, D. Miller and M. Dunning, “Simulation optimization-based decision support tool for steel manufacturing,” International Journal of Production Economics, vol. Vol. 141, pp. 269-276, 2013.