A simulation –based approach for optimizing an electro- plating production process based on theory of constraints and data envelopment analysis

Abstract

Evaluating and developing the electroplating production process is a key challenge in this type of process. The process is influenced by several factors, such as process parameters, process costs, and production environments. Analyzing and optimizing all these factors together requires extensive analytical techniques that are not available for real-case industrial entities. This paper presents a practicebased framework to improve the electroplating production line performance in order to reduce product flow time and waiting time while increasing total throughput with minimum number of defective products so as to establish sustainable operations and improve system performance. The proposed approach respectively uses Design of Experiments (DOE), Discrete-Event Simulation (DES), and Theory of Constraints (TOC) to identify the most significant factors affecting the production process and simulate a real production line to recognize the effect of these factors and assign possible bottlenecks. Several scenarios are generated as a corrective strategy for improving the production line. Following that, Data Envelopment AnalysisCharnes, Cooper, and Rhodes (CCR) input-oriented DEA model is used to evaluate and optimize the suggested scenarios.