Material Requirement Analysis Under Rejection for a Serial

Production System Using Simulation

Mathapati Shivkumar Digamberrao, and Madhusudanan Pillai V
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Calicut
NIT Campus Post, Calicut, Kerala – 673 601

ABSTRACT: This paper is concerned with the analysis of material requirement for a given
quantity of finished goods to produce. The work-part undergoes a sequential production process.
During production, the work-part can be rejected at any stage of the production process. This random
nature of rejection brings uncertainty in the estimation of raw material requirement. In literature, such
production processes are modelled as absorbing Markov Chains. This paper models the above
production system using simulation. Arena simulation software is used for this purpose. The material
requirement obtained through simulation is agreeing with that given by the analytical model.

1. Introduction
An understanding of the performance characteristics of any manufacturing system is
essential for making efficient and effective planning and operating decisions. The decision
making process become difficult when the decision variable is random in nature. This is true
in the case of manufacturing of an item, which undergoes various stages of operation and
opportunity for rejection exists at these stages. In literature, such manufacturing processes are
modelled as Absorbing Markov chains [1, 2] to determine production system parameters. The
present paper models such processes using simulation and the parameter analysed is material
requirement. Arena simulation software package is used for this purpose. The material
requirement obtained using simulation is compared with that of analytical model.

2. Simulation
‘Simulation involves the modelling of a process or system in such a way that the model
mimics the response of the actual system to events that take place over time’ [3]. Simulation
is the process of designing a model of a real system and conducting experiments with this
model for the purpose of understanding the behaviour of the system and/or evaluating various
strategies for the operation of the system. In this paper simulation is considered to include
both the construction of the model and the experimental use of the model for studying a
problem. Thus, simulation modelling is an experimental and applied methodology that seeks
to accomplish the following:
• Describe the behaviour of systems,
• Construct theories or hypotheses that account for the observed behaviour
• Use the model to predict future behaviour; that is, the effects produced by changes in
the system or in its method of operation.
3. ‘Arena’: a Simulation Tool
Arena software enables to bring the power of modelling and simulation to the business. It
is designed for analysing the impact of changes involving significant and complex redesigns
associated with supply chain, manufacturing, processes, logistics, distribution and
warehousing, and service systems [3]. It provides the maximum flexibility and breadth of
application coverage to model any desired level of detail and complexity.
The Arena software is designed for manufacturing or business process consultants and
analysts and industrial or systems engineers. It is typically developed as an enterprise
business analysis and productivity tool [4].
4. Problem Description: Serial Production System
The process modelled here consists of a serial production system with three stages. It is a
discrete manufacturing system, where a work-part moves through the system and comes out
as a finished component. The work-part is a raw material or semi finished part before the start
of production operations. At every stage of production the part is subjected to inspection; if it
does not conform to specifications, it is either scrapped or reworked. The reworked
component undergoes inspection again. It is assumed that nonconforming items are produced
randomly at each stage. Figure 1 shows a manufacturing process that requires three
operations.

M1 M2 M3 Finished
Raw Material (Turning) (Drilling) (Milling) Part

Figure 1. Manufacturing Stages

To analyse the raw material requirement, the scrap rate and rework rate at each stage are
required. The hypothetical data related with scrap rate and rework rate at each stage for the
above example are given in the Table 1.
Table 1 Data from the Production Process
Process Scrap rate Rework rate Operating rate
in % in % (Units/hr)
Incoming material 0.2 - -
Turning 1.0 1.0 30
Rework turning 1.0 - 20
Drilling 2.0 3.0 30
Rework drilling 2.0 - 15
Milling 4.0 3.0 10
Rework milling 3.0 - 20

5. Arena Model
The create module from the basic process panel of Arena is used to generate parts for
production in the manufacturing line. This module is intended as the starting point for entities
in the simulation model. Also the entity type is specified in this module.

Figure 2. Arena Simulation Model

The Arena simulation model of the production system is shown in Figure 2. Record
module is used to collect the statistics in the simulation model; here it is used as a counter.
The processes module is intended as the main processing method in the simulation. Since the
system contains three process stages, three process modules are used. The process time is
allocated to the entity. Decide module allows for the decision-making process in the system. It
is an inspection epoch in this model; the percentage of rework and rejection is given as the
inputs. Dispose module is intended for the parts leaving the production system. Separate
dispose modules are used for scrapped parts and finished end items.
 The simulation model is used to determine the quantity of raw material required when
the finished parts required is 100 units. One of the parameter of the model is the number of
replications, which determined through experimentation. For this experimentation a graph of
material required versus number of replication is plotted. This graph is used to determine the
steady state condition. It can be seen from the figure 3 that the material requirement is not
changing beyond 40 replications. Hence the number of replication can be fixed as greater than
40 and here it is set at 100.

Steady State

12
Material Requirement

10
8
Steady state
6
Analysis
4
2
0
00

00
0

0
00

0
.0

.0

.0

.0

0.

0.
1.

80
40
20

60

10

12

No. of Replication

Figure 3. Steady State Graph

A record module is used to record the items that reach the finished part state. This record
module has a user defined variable called finished parts which is a counter type variable. The
terminating condition is the specification of expression or condition that is evaluated
throughout the simulation run to determine whether or not to stop the simulation [5]. If the
condition or expression is true, the simulation run will be terminated. In this simulation
model, the terminating condition is the finished parts is equal to 100. The other inputs in the
set-up of the simulation model are:
1) Warm-up period: 0
2) Replication length: infinite
The useful results of the above simulation model for 100 units of finished parts are:
1) Number of units scrapped after normal operations: 7.80
2) Number of units scrapped after rework: 0.100
3) The material requirement is the sum of number of finished parts and the number of
scrapped parts before and after rework and it is equal to 107.9000.
This result is compared with the result obtained using the absorbing Markov chain model of
the production system.

6. Analytical Method
In literature [1, 2] the manufacturing processes of the above type are modelled as
absorption Markov chains. Using the properties of absorbing Markov chain, the production
system can be analysed [1, 6, 7]. One of the parameters can be analysed is the expected
quantity of material that has to be started from state 1 to produce 100 units of finished parts.
This analysis is carried out using the method available in Madhusudanan Pillai [1]. For 100
units of finished parts required the material required and scrapped quantity of material are as
follows:
1) Material requirement: 107.7935 units
 2) Number of units scrapped after normal operations: 7.5886 units
3) Number of units scrapped after rework: 0.2048 units

7. Comparison of simulation results with the analytical method

It can be seen that the simulation result is matching with analytical result. A simulation
model is often easier to justify to management or customers than some of the analytical
models. In addition, simulation might have more credibility because its behaviour has been
compared to that of the real system or because it has required fewer simplifying assumptions
and hence the simulation model can be considered as the true representation of the real
system.
Virtually all simulation models are so-called input-output models, that is, they yield the
output of the system for a given input. Simulation models are therefore ‘run’ rather than
‘solved.’ They cannot generate an optimal solution on their own as analytical models can;
they can only serve as tools for the analysis of system behaviour under specified conditions
[4].

8. Conclusion
An Arena simulation model for a serial production system with scrap and rework has
been developed. The simulated model has been run for various number of replication and the
steady state has been identified. Material requirement for a given quantity of finished part to
produce are determined using simulation. Then this result is compared with that of the
analytical method. The results obtained through simulation for the material requirement of the
above serial production system are agreeing with the material requirement obtained by the
analytical method. The simulation model is simple to understand compared to analytical
model.

References:
1. Madhusudanan Pillai, V., 2005, Stochastic Processes in Cellular
Manufacturing Environment. Ph .D thesis, Department of Mechanical
Engineering, NIT Calicut.
2. Davis, R. P., and Kennedy Jr., W. J., 1987, Markovian modelling of
manufacturing systems. International Journal of Production Research, 25, 337-
351.
3. Kelton, W. D., Sadowski, R. P., and Strrock, D. T., 2004, Simulation with
Arena, Third Edition, (McGraw-Hill).
4. Banks, J., Carson, J. S., Nelson, B. L., Nicol, D. M., 1996, Discrete-Event
System Simulation. (Prentice Hall of India Private Limited).
5. Rockwell Software, 2002, User’s Guide - Arena Basic (Doc ID ARENAB-
UM001C-EN-P)
6. Viswanadham, N., and Narahari, Y., 1992, Performance Modelling of
Automated Manufacturing Systems (Prentice-Hall of India).
7. Ravindran, A., Philips, D. T., and Solberg, J. J., 1987, Operations Research:
Principles and Practice (John Wiley & Sons).