Project title:

Towards a Simulation Based Decision-Support System for a

Medium-sized Tile Manufacturing Industry

Engr.Aamir khan
Cecos university peshawar
contents
Abstract
Introduction
Simulation model
Experiments
Results and discussion
Conclusion
References
 Abstract
An effective measure of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is of great
significance to enhance the capabilities of a decision support system
(DSS) of any enterprise.
Only a properly planned systematic analysis can provide the DSS with
enough information in order to reap the associated benefits.
This study aims to provide such an information-set on continuous
basis for a tile manufacturing industry of medium-size.
 Introduction
This study is a step towards an evolutionary adoption of the
underlying principles of Industries 4.0 in deep-rooted conventional
SME setups in Pakistan.
in this process, a virtual copy of an actual manufacturing setup
(Frontier Ceramic Tile Manufacturing) is modeled based on discrete-
event system simulation approach to continuously monitor a
predefined set of KPIs inspired by Industries 4.0 underlying principles.
 Background
This section describes the configuration of the manufacturing setup.
Frontier Ceramics
Materials & Process
KPIs
a) Manufacturing lead time
b) Average in-process inventory
c) Resource capacity utilization rate
 Simulation model
For this study, a discrete-event modeling paradigm is adopted.
The entire set of resources that include the machines, humans,
devices and sensors are modeled to handle the discrete part
processing.
The continuous and hybrid processing sections are approximated to
produce the discrete set of data.
Simulation model of the ceramic tile manufacturing unit is illustrated
in Figure II.
 Experiments
The experiments are conducted with real data from plant along with
the observed variations in processing conditions irrespective of the
demand fluctuations.
A total of 48 hrs time is selected as warm up period whereas the
replication length is 720 hours with 100 replications. Two separate
configurations are simulated. First one is the single product
configuration using INK-JET 8X12 wall tile, which is the most
commonly used product.
 Results and discussion
A total of 180 lots are produced according to the experimental setup
of the simulation.
In Figure III, histogram of the lead time for two configurations are
plotted to make a comparison of the variation of the lead time across
100 replications.
Lead time variation across replications for single
product (left) and mixed product (right)
 Figure IV illustrates the in-process inventory across the entire set of
lots processed for both configurations whereas Table V presents the
variation from average in-process inventory for configuration A for a
set of selected lots evenly distributed over simulation length horizon.
The overall average in-process inventory level lies at 105.3 and 130.1
for configuration A and configuration B respectively.
In Table VI, average resource utilization of 9 equipments is given.
Lower utilization for configuration B is an expected outcome however
it is not obvious from the performed experiments that how the
various factors are contributing towards this lower utilization since a
higher lead-time, fixed cost vector and improper line balance have a
dual effect
 Conclusion
A detailed simulation analysis of a tile manufacturing unit is carried
out based on Rockwell Arena.
KPIs are defined with a context of measuring the potential of this tile
manufacturing unit to judge industries 4.0 readiness.
If proper measures are not taken into account, that we believe to be
in compliance with recent trends of industries 4.0, the dominance of
the imported tile would continue to increase and may threaten
severely the local manufacturers.
 References
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[2] A. Suman and B. Yanuwiadi, Efficiency Analysis in Small Industry of Tiles and Bricks
Production ( Case Study in Nganjuk District ), vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 3945, 2015.
[3] G. Davoli, S. A. Gallo, M. W. Collins, and R. Melloni, A stochastic simulation
approach for production scheduling and investment planning in the tile industry, vol. 2,
no. 9, pp. 107124, 2010.
[4] J. Kirkley, C. J. Morrison Paul, and D. Squires, Capacity and Capacity Utilization in
Common-pool Resource Industries, Environ. Resour. Econ., vol. 22, no. 1/2, pp. 7197,
2002.
[5] C. Agrafiotis and T. Tsoutsos, Energy saving technologies in the European ceramic
sector: A systematic review, Appl. Therm. Eng., vol. 21, no. 12, pp. 12311249, Aug.
Thank you
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