Industrial Cases in Simulation Modeling

Copyright © 2011 by James A. Chisman, Ph.D..

ISBN:          Ebook                                      978-1-4653-6412-8

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CONTENTS

Industrial Consulting And Advisory Cases

Apple Computer Ltd.: Carousel Conveyor Bottleneck

Apple Computer Ltd.: Printed Circuit Board Assembly

Apple Computer Ltd.: Warehouse/Shipping Design

Consumers Power Company: Mobile Substation

Consumers Power Company: Reliability Analysis

Ford Motor Company: Engine Palletization

IBM: Material Flow Congestion

Owens Corning Fiberglas Corporation: Workforce Reallocation

Reliance Electric Company: Gear Manufacturing Cell

Spartanburg Steel Products Company: Material Flow Layout

Real World Student Projects

Barbershop Staffing

Division Of Labor

Elevator Operating Policy

Llght Bulb Replacement Policy

Main Street, USA

Maintenance Policy

Man-Machine Interaction

Robot Operation

Spare Parts Policy

Supermarket Staffing

Where Do You Want Your WIP?

Non-Queuing Examples

Construction Bidding Policy

Integration

Machining Passes/Time

Traveling Salesman Problem

PREFACE

In the area of operations research/management science (OR/MS), particularly in simulation modeling, working contrived textbook problems does not prepare one well for modeling the kinds of problems one finds in the real world. This book presents three kinds of real world simulation problems from the author’s broad experience: (1) problems that the author has solved as an industrial consultant or advisor, (2) problems he has had his students study for local businesses, and (3) non-queuing examples, all of which are arranged alphabetically within each category. These problems represent a very broad spectrum of the kinds of problems that simulation modeling can address. Since most simulation modeling software is somewhat problem-independent, the conceptual and modeling experience gained by simulating the problems in this book should prepare one well for simulating problems in other areas not found here.

Some of the data presented has been disguised at the company’s request. Most of these problems, particularly the consulting cases, have been scaled down to make them more manageable time-wise, while still preserving most of the other elements of reality. The main element of reality somewhat lacking here, as in all case study examples, is that most of the data is given. In real world studies, it has been the author’s experience that data collection can take from 50% to 80% of the total time allocated to the study. To maintain some reality in this regard for some problems, a little easily acquired or observed data is left out to give the student some data collection experience and sense of identification with the problem. Commonsensical or contrived data can be substituted in these cases if the instructor, student, or other reader so desires.

An Instructor’s Manual is available upon request for faculty who require this book for their classes. Please send your request on College stationery along with a check for $10 to the author at POB 1111, Clemson, SC 29633. This guide provides helpful hints for modeling some of the more complex case studies. For those who might use this book outside of the classroom environment, the following table (which is included in the Instructor’s Manual) will provide a measure of modeling difficulty. Of course, the problems can be made more or less difficult by the assumptions made regarding the level of detail.