A Combined Simulation-based Taguchi Robust Design Approach for Improved Parameter Design

摘要

The modeling and examination of coordinated manufacturing systems have turned out to be progressively imperative since the wide acknowledgment of ideas for various leveled control and processing plant robotization. Even though preceding studies of this area demonstrate that the outcomes of simulation can be used for further investigation of design of experiment, investigation of optimum manufacturing process parameter to reduce the cost of manufacturing for a product did not receive comparable attention. Therefore, this paper deals with the optimization of process parameters in a manufacturing systems to minimize the Unit Manufacturing Cost (UMC) of Un-plasticized Poly Vinyl Chloride (UPVC) pipes using a combined Simulation-Robust Taguchi approach. Thus significant factors along with their optimum combination were found using Taguchi techniques to arrive at the least manufacturing cost. The result of this investigation demonstrates that key parameters for optimum performance of the manufacturing system are feed rate (the entities per arrival) in to the hopper and the extrusion rate. The expected unit cost of manufacturing for the selected pipe model is 239 birr and expected cost of manufacturing reduced by 21.6% because the utilization of the resources increased by 13%, 19% for the operators from the actual performance. With the new perspectives of integrated modeling, the study contributes to the body of knowledge which also opens a new outlook for further studies.