title: Dynamic bottleneck elimination in mattress manufacturing line using theory of constraints.
abstract: There is a tough competition in the furniture sector like other sectors. Along with the varying product range, production system should also be renewed on a regular basis and the production costs should be kept under control. In this study, spring mattress manufacturing line of a furniture manufacturing company is analyzed. The company wants to increase its production output with new investments. The objective is to find the bottlenecks in production line in order to balance the semi-finished material flow. These bottlenecks are investigated and several different scenarios are tested to improve the current manufacturing system. The problem with a main theme based on the elimination of the bottleneck is solved using Goldratt and Cox's theory of constraints with a simulation based heuristic method. Near optimal alternatives are determined by system models built in Arena 13.5 simulation software. Results show that approximately 46 % capacity enhancements with 2 buffer stocks have increased average production by 88.8 %.
authors.affiliation: Industrial Engineering Department, Sakarya University, 54187 Sakarya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Emin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Gundogar
authors.affiliation: Industrial Engineering Department, Sakarya University, 54187 Sakarya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Murat
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sari
authors.affiliation: Industrial Engineering Department, Sakarya University, 54187 Sakarya, Turkey.
authors.forename: Abdullah H
authors.initials: AH
authors.lastname: Kokcam
keywords: Bottleneck search; Buffer stock; Simulation; Spring mattress manufacturing; Theory of constraints