Simulation-Based Decision Support System to Improve Material Flow of a Textile Company

Vitor Silva, Luís Pinto Ferreira, Francisco J.G. Silva, Benny Tjahjono, Paulo Avila

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    12 Citations (Scopus)
    174 Downloads (Pure)

    Abstract

    To remain competitive, companies must continuously improve the processes at hand, be they administrative, production, or logistics. The objective of the study described in this paper was to develop a decision-making tool based on a simulation model to support the production of knits and damask fabrics. The tool was used to test different control strategies for material flow, from the raw material warehouse to the finished product warehouse, and thus can also be used to evaluate the impacts of these strategies on the productivity. The data upon which the decision support tool was built were collected from five sectors of the plant: the raw material warehouse, knit production, damask production, finishing work, and the finished product warehouse. The decision support tool met the objectives of the project, with all five strategies developed showing positive results. Knit and damask production rates increased by up to 8% and 44%, respectively, and a reduction of 75% was observed in the waiting time on the point of entry to the finishing work area, compared to the company’s existing system.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article number2947
    Number of pages11
    JournalSustainability (Switzerland)
    Volume13
    Issue number5
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 9 Mar 2021

    Bibliographical note

    This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

    Keywords

    • Decision support system
    • Simulation
    • Control strategies
    • Materials flow

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