Agent-Based Simulation of Value Flow in an Industrial Production Process

The current competitive environment demands companies to be more and more efficient. In order to increase manufacturing efficiency, two apparently independent approaches have emerged: lean strategies, focusing on identifying and minimizing non-added value activities, identifying wastes in the system and their elimination, and information tools for planning and controlling activities. In this paper, a manufacturing system was considered for which it was necessary to increase the production capacity in order to respond to the customer's increased demand. A practical case study in the automotive industry for a medium-sized enterprise was considered. In order to investigate the production process parameters and to implement lean principles, Value Stream Mapping (current analysis and optimized solution) and Anylogic agent-based simulations were carried out. Based on this, the lean performances, specific for the target VSM, were evaluated in terms of key performance indicators. The benefits of integrating agent-based simulation in the design and analysis of the value flow in the production chain are the capitalization of the information offered by Value Stream Mapping and the possibility to choose the best one from the possible scenarios. It generates important time and cost reductions without further resource waste.