Using simulation for process reengineering in refractory ceramics manufacturing—a case study

This paper deals with the simulation study carried out to solve bottleneck operations using manufacturing process reengineering. The study was carried out in a ceramic fiber products manufacturing company that deals with heat insulation solutions. The study mainly concentrates on the current capacity of facilities and delay in the manufacturing lead time in order to meet the order fulfillment lead time (OFLT). A simulation model was developed for the current scenario, and all the necessary performance measures were analyzed in order to propose changes in the process. It was found that the facilities had huge cycle time to process the products to the next stage, which created huge delays in meeting the OFLT. The outcome of the simulation was taken into account by the decision makers and recommendations implemented for the retro fitment of existing facilities. Using process reengineering, the proposed changes in the manufacturing line yielded 50% reduction in cycle time and manufacturing lead time (MLT) was reduced to 1.5 from 3 days.