| Summary: | This report is a master thesis project done as a final project of Industrial design engineering with a master in production engineering, at Luleå University of Technology during the spring of 2021. The project was done as a collaboration with the company Nord-lock, based out of Mattmar, Sweden. The company produce wedge-locking washers that use tension instead of friction to secure critical bolted joints. The purpose of the project was to create a simulation model which can be used as a tool for improving production utilisation. The company do not currently use simulation within the organisation, requiring the model to be built up from scratch. The overall project structure has followed a cyclic process which divides it into three different laps. The first lap focused on mapping the production and gaining an understanding of the manufacturing and business systems. The second lap focused on the creation of the simulation model and further data collection. The third lap looked into validation and experimentation with the simulation model, creating cases to test the use and outputs of the model. The simulation model followed four key stages for conducting a simulation study, going from creating an understanding of the real world and the problems to the solutions. The current state was mapped using different methods for data collection and further analysis of the findings. Direct observation with operators at the shop floor was used to gain an understanding of how a batch travels through the manufacturing system. Observing the human operations that are required for different activities was important for creating a map over the necessary steps in a process. The production is divided into two different flow groups, with machines and operations being placed into machine groups under these. The surface treatment is an important step in assuring the products quality and exists as a collection of machine groups under the first flow group. It became clear that the production planning of batches was separated between the ...
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