A manufacturing plant that produces gearboxes has to be designed and optimized. Each gearbox is composed of the following components two gears, two bearings, and one casting. Gears are manufactured in a separate plant and arrive via a 20 m conveyor belt, according to a time distribution defined in the excel file supplied. The conveyor is of a belt type, and gears have a footprint of 80 by 80 by 100 mm, and can

DISCRETE EVENT SIMULATION
Coursework Assignment
Create the model and optimise the profit for the plant described in the following. You need to simulate
ten days operation after an appropriate warm-up period.
Description
A manufacturing plant that produces gearboxes has to be designed and optimized. Each gearbox is
composed of the following components: two gears, two bearings, and one casting.
Gears are manufactured in a separate plant and arrive via a 20 m conveyor belt, according to a time
distribution defined in the excel file supplied. The conveyor is of a belt type, and gears have a footprint
of 80 by 80 by 100 mm, and can be spaced on the conveyor 100 mm apart. The maximum capacity of
the conveyor is 180 parts, and the speed is 5 m/min.
Castings are drawn from stock and loaded to a CNC workstation for additional machining and boring.
An operator loads each casting to the workstation (loading operation takes 0.5 to 1 minutes) and
unloads them to a bin (maximum capacity 50). Unloading takes 0.5 to 0.9 minutes and the machining
cycle takes 2.3 minutes. Every 20th machined casting is not loaded to the bin, but to an inspection
station. The inspection operation cycle time is triangularly distributed with a minimum of 0.8 minutes,
a maximum of 2.2 minute, and a mode of 1.1 minutes. The inspection is manually carried out by the
operator(s). Previous tests have shown that after 20 samples inspected there is a 78% chance that
the critical dimensions (bores for bearings) are at the upper tolerance limit. When this occurs, the
tools in the CNC workstation are replaced and the machine is cleaned. The operation time is
triangularly distributed with a minimum of 2.5, maximum of 3.7, and mode of 3.2 minutes. The failed
gearbox is scrapped.
The gearbox assembly process is manually performed by an operator. Bearings are assumed to be
always available. The process takes a mean of 3 minutes with a standard deviation of 0.7 minutes,
but no less than 2.2 minutes and no more than 5 minutes. Each assembled gearbox is put into a
buffer for testing.
A testbench runs the gearboxes for 10 minutes and can initially take up to five at a time. An operator
loads and unloads them to the test points. Loading and unloading both take from 0.2 to 0.4 minutes
for each gearbox. There is a 93% chance of passing the gearbox for shipping, while the failed
gearboxes are sent directly to a disassembly station where an operator will remove the gears and put
them back on the conveyor 5 m from its end. The gearbox castings and bearings are instead
discarded. Disassembly takes a mean of 2.3 minutes, with a standard deviation of 0.4, but no less
than 1.7 minutes and no more than 3.5 minutes.
The plant is staffed by a number of operators (to be decided) who are trained in all activities.
Costs and Budget
The company has already purchased the CNC workstation for £72K. The CNC workstation needs to
be repaid in three years. The plant operates on a eight-hour shift. Operators have 15 minute break in
the morning and afternoon, and one hour for lunch.
Additionally, you have a budget of £15K to set up the remainder of the plant. This expenditure must
be repaid within one year.
Costs

Assembly tations with appropriate tooling:
Bins for machined gearboxes:
Text bench space per gearbox:
Fixed cost for hiring an operator (advertising, training, etc …):
Operator hourly rate including on-costs:
£1800
£200
£2200
£1500
£15.60

Task
Optimise the plant to achieve maximum profit within the allotted budget. You may need to optimise
the plant for the priorities of the machines first. The expected profit for each completed and working
gearbox is £80.
Investigate what effect a breakdown of the CNC workstation and the conveyor belt for 90 minutes has
on the daily production rate.
Write a report describing your model and present results on a series of tests on the model. In your
conclusions, present an evaluation of the model in the light of all the assumptions made and what
limitations they place on the model. The report must be in the form of a standard technical report or
article and should include:
Abstract
Introduction
This should include some explanation of stochastic modelling and methods and tools available to
carry out discrete-event simulation to form a literature review. For example, you might want to discuss
software packages other than Witness and techniques such as Petri Net models.
You should also introduce the problem by a description of the plant; the use of a block diagram may
help.
Methods
Describe your modelling technique and the structure of the Witness model. Justify your approaches to
building the model and include any relevant references. Describe the approach to optimisation and
describe all equations or functions used.
Results
Present the results of the optimisation(s) and experiments and the expected daily and hourly
production and profit from the plant.
Discussion
Discuss the model, its performance and implications on the real system. Discuss and evaluate the
limitations of the model.
Conclusions
Provide some conclusions in a form that will advise the company management on the feasibility and
expected returns for the plant.
The report will be submitted to UniHub as a PDF or WORD document, with a copy of your model and
optimisation / experimentation files. The report will be submitted to a Turnitin dropbox and the model
and other files to a separate dropbox. Assessment will be based on your research, the explanation of
the model generation, description of the experimentation / optimisation, the presentation of results
and conclusions. An element of assessment will be for a sensible and logical graphical presentation of
the model in Witness.

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