Multivariate simulation analysis of production leveling (heijunka) - a case study

Production leveling (heijunka) is one of the lean tool that is used to stabilize a manufacturing system (reduce the bullwhip effect). Production leveling is a kind of cyclic scheduling that creates production regularity and coordination simplicity. This article describes simulation modeling and multivariate analysis of an assembly production line in a microelectronics factory. The assembly line is organized according to lean principles with heijunka-kanban production control. The simulation technique is applied to evaluate the performance of the manufacturing system which requires modifications to achieve two objectives, i.e. to minimize the average throughput time and to minimize the average work-in-progress. The case study is meant to gain an understanding of the way the appropriate arrangement of heijunka improves both throughput time and work-in-progress, and to supply an illustrative example of discrete event simulation as a useful tool in facilitating heijunka.