Discrete Event Simulation Model to Evaluate the Performance of the Underframe Production Line: A Case of Railcar Manufacturing

This paper presents the Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model to evaluate the performance of the proposed assembly line for a railcar manufacturing organization. The company experienced performance related problems which includes the underutilization of resources which lead to increased production cost due to the non-satisfaction of the production volume target set by the client. In this study facility layout design was identified as problem, and the studies proposed alternative layouts to address the problem. A DES model was then developed as a means of evaluating the performance of each proposed layout. The performance of the proposed layout is compared with the existing layout using the Anylogic software. The results of this study indicated that the proposed layout could improve utilization of welders and the overall productivity by 42% and 67% respectively.