Modeling and simulation for quality management in manufacturing processes

Abstract

Quality management in manufacturing processes is crucial to improve organizational performance. In order to improve product quality of manufacturing processes, new quality strategies have to be implemented and manufacturing processes have to be re-engineered. The effectiveness of such strategies and process modifications must be evaluated prior to implementation. However, experimentation with the real manufacturing system is constrained as quality and manufacturing related parameters such as fraction defective, inspection strategies, and machine failures cannot be systematically changed in a real manufacturing context. Therefore, modeling and simulation is widely used in operations management to analyze manufacturing and business processes. Though simulation of manufacturing systems is well studied in literature, simulation models that focus on apparel manufacturing and specific aspects of quality management are limited. Therefore, the objectives of this paper are to review the existing simulation models of quality management, identify their limitations and propose areas of study for further research, and demonstrate the simulation of a one-piece-flow apparel manufacturing module. A discrete event simulation technique was adopted in the simulation model, and the effects of fraction defective and machine failures on throughput, work-in-progress, and cost per unit were evaluated.