TU-E2020 Advanced Operations Management

Simulation exercise 1 page 1

Exercise 1) Bottlenecks and throughput

Registration & returning
The simulation exercises will be performed in groups of 2-3 persons. Register your group by sending an
email to tea.tahtinen(at)aalto.fi. The message should contain:
- Student names
- Student numbers
- Email addresses

Return your answers to this exercise in written document by Tuesday, November 10th 2015 8.30 AM to
MyCourses. The document should contain 24 pages.

Introduction
In this first exercise, a simple Simul8 simulation model will be built. The same model will be analyzed
further in the other exercises.

We are developing the production of an imaginary company producing snow vehicles. The layout of the
company facilities is illustrated in Figure 1 below.

Office
Finished
goods stock
& goods receiving
Dispatching

Painting Assembly

Component
Body stock
shop

Figure 1: Company layout

Production departments:
- Body shop: The large metallic parts of a skidoo chassis are cut, welded and refined here. The required
raw materials are picked from the component stock.
- Painting: The chassis is painted here.
- Assembly: Painted chassis, motor, and other parts are assembled here into a finished skidoo.
- Dispatching: Customer orders are fulfilled here by picking a finished skidoo from the finished goods
stock and by loading them into a truck.

The lead times of the production steps were measured (Table 1).
TU-E2020 Advanced Operations Management
Simulation exercise 1 page 2

Table 1: Production lead times and number of resources

Production department Production lead-time distribution Number of parallel resources

Body shop Fixed(8 hours) 6
Painting Normal(120min; 5min) 1
Assembly Normal(60min; 5min) 1
Dispatching Normal(10min; 10min) 1

Questions
Q1) What is the maximum throughput of the production system?

Build-up a simulation model of the production system and measure its maximum weekly production
throughput. Include a short model description in the report.

Model elements:
Work items: Only one work item type since different finished goods are not modeled
Start point: Unlimited arrivals, linked to an activity for controlling the arrivals
Activities: One activity for each production department (Table 1)
Queues: Between activities for decoupling departments
Clock properties: 5 days a week, 8 hours a day, 4 weeks results collection period

Comments:
Customer orders are not modeled (unlimited demand/arrivals)
Raw material components, component stock, and component goods receiving are not modeled

Q2) What is bottleneck?

Define theoretically a bottleneck resource. What are the physical symptoms of a bottleneck in the shop
floor?

Find the bottleneck resource in this exercise.

Q3) What is the relationship between bottleneck throughput and the whole factory
throughput?

Change the number of replicates (effective number of activities) in the bottleneck activity. Measure the
whole factory throughput for each alternative. What is the relationship between bottleneck throughput
and the whole factory throughput?

What is the cost of an hour lost (zero throughput for an hour) in the bottleneck activity?

Q4) What is simulation?

Construct your own definition for simulation.