Quantitative Analysis of the Impact of Inter-Line Conveyor Capacity for Throughput of Manufacturing Systems

The objective of this study is to identify the impact of an inter-line conveyor on the throughput performance of manufacturing systems and determine the capacity of an inter-line conveyor to improvise productivity. First, manufacturing system for an automotive assembly line is modeled by adopting the methodology of two lines with an inter-line conveyor system. A quantitative analysis of an inter-line conveyor capacity is carried out under different conditions and capacities using discrete event simulation (DES). The initial results are obtained to justify the purpose of an inter-line conveyor followed by introducing a random failure of a station for the duration of 10 minutes, 30 minutes, and catastrophic breakdown of two hours at upstream and downstream line separately. The case study outcomes show that, 20 unit is an optimum capacity resulting in improved productivity. The findings of the different stoppage and catastrophic breakdown study show the buffering of an inter-line conveyor may serve as a new approach and guideline to the buffer stack design and scheduling maintenance.