Improving the Operational Efficiency of a Soft-drink Bottling Plant
Student Name: T. Nataraj
Different definitions and notions of operating efficiency
were studied and then the factors affecting these efficiencies of the plant
under study were narrowed down with a goal to improve upon their existing
values. First the set-up time for the bottling operation was minimized using
Integer Programming, yielding optimal bottling sequence of different flavors
of soft-drinks. Next the performance of the production system was studied
using simulation. Observations on relevant variables/processes pertaining to
the production system were collected and appropriate parametric stochastic
models were fitted for these variables, which were used for the simulation
study. Finally a reliability analysis of the production line was carried
out again through a simulation study. Distribution of time-to-failure and
down-time after a failure due to six different failure modes, which act as
competing risks on the production line, were empirically found to follow
independent exponential distributions. Since analytical expressions for
expected number of failures and down-times per week for each failure mode
were hard to compute, these quantities were approximated using simulation
and different operating efficiency indices were calculated using these
figures, which helped in figuring out the key areas requiring serious
attention for improving the reliability of the production line.