Modeling and Simulation of a Production Line (Panel Line) in shipbuilding Industry using Tecnomatix Plant Simulation 9.0

Abstract

Shipbuilding industry is one of the most difficult operations as far as design and production are concerned, since it is production processes where hundreds of thousands of parts are welded and joined together to only just give a single product (Ship). The technical complexity of the ship industry is highly related to the fact that different types of ships entail distinct specification requirements that affects the design and production system adversely. The construction of the ship is really a special challenge since it should in principle satisfy the requirements of the ship owner, shipyard and the Class and Flag Society which usually presents a conflict interest. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the production line (Panel line) in shipbuilding industry through the application of modeling and simulation techniques using Tecnomatix Plant Simulation 9.0 software considering two types of ships (Tanker and Container) for which most of the stiffened panels are produced in the Panel line. During modeling, first the existing condition has been modeled and simulated considering the parameters for each work station (station time) in order to get an insight about the production rate, the effect of each work station on the overall panel line and their utilization. Next, Scenario analysis has been performed in effort to improve the production rate along the panel line applying the experimental manager and the genetic algorithm tools within the software by selecting appropriate optimization parameters from the work stations so as to improve the productivity. Furthermore the influence of the addition of a new workstation on the existing panel line has also been examined in both cases (Tanker and Container ship) that would be very useful input for the new workstation to be incorporated soon that leads to the design of a new work station. The simulation analysis carried out in this project revealed that the same work station is acting as a bottleneck which is affecting the productivity of the panel line both for container and tanker ships considered in the analysis. Different improving alternatives have been presented in the paper and a new work station has been designed in such a way that it will not at least affect the productivity of the existing production (panel) line considering sub-station within the new work station. Finally, In order to give more flexibility to the modeling and simulation process, an interface has been established with the Microsoft access (database) where the data for the workstations’ parameters will be stored and to Microsoft excel where the final results will be exported that facilitates the use and visualization of the results. The Microsoft access and Microsoft excel files have been placed on the same interface (Model frame) in order to easily access the files at the same time. Based on the overall analysis carried out in this thesis, a conclusion has been drawn.