Adaptive Line Balancing: Effective Control of Production Lines
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Production engineering (MPPEN), MSc
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Andreasson, Alex
Viklander, Jakob
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
With raising prices on energy, companies will need to find solutions which lowers
the energy consumption to cut their costs. One way of decreasing the energy consumption
could be finding a solution which adapt the speeds or shut down machines
and conveyors in production systems depending of the situation. In this report a
new concept of an adaptive control system is evaluated. By counting the Work-
In-Progress within segments the adaptive control system decides the speeds of the
machines and conveyors in real time. The expected outcome of the production system
is improved production rate, decrease of starvation and blocking, improvement
of gentle handling with smoother operations and reduction of energy consumption
and noise. The goal was to evaluate the adaptive control system by implementing
it in a simulation model of a test system.
The project followed Banks methodology but the development of the simulation
model was split into four steps where each step was verified separately to ensure
functionality and quality of the model. The final simulation model was combined
out of the four validated models to give it the functionality needed. The simulation
model was then run with and without the adaptive control system and the results
were compared.
The goal of the project was achieved and ALB was verified to be working in a virtual
environment. In a physical test rig the system for counting WIP does not have the
accuracy needed for a perfect implementation.
The results from ALB in the virtual environment shows that on average the software
is able to reduce the machine speeds with 5% while still managing to produce the
same throughput as a conventionally steered system. If implemented correctly the
effect of this should yield a lower energy consumption, lower the noise, and prolong
the life length of machines and conveyors, in factories