Improving Efficiency of TV PCB Assembly Line Using a Discrete Event Simulation Approach: A Case Study

Abstract

In this paper, discrete event simulation was utilized to gain more insight into the behavior of a Television Printed Circuit Board (TV PCB) assembly line in one of the leading companies in the Middle East and Africa. The simulation output shows an imbalance in workload between workstations that hinder any opportunity for improvement. Therefore, many scenarios were proposed for rearranging the resources for the sake of eliminating bottlenecks, and increasing resources utilization by transferring technicians from idle to busy workstations. The proposed configurations have proven their superiority in significantly increasing the throughput and improving workload balance throughout the line. Finally, a cost analysis was carried out to assess the return on investment of each scenario separately in order to elaborate the credibility of these proposals.