Reducing throughput time for the frame production line at Nijhuis Toelevering B.V. : A simulation study on the layout and organisational decisions

This research about the frame production line at Nijhuis Toelevering B.V., where a transition with new machinery raised questions on how to organise the layout and what organisational decisions should be made to decrease the throughput time from 6 to 3 working days for all batch types. Therefore, we analysed the production line using the Theory of Constraints and a lean frame work to search for bottlenecks and wastes. This analysis showed us that the bottlenecks and wastes where located at the pre-assembly line, manual painting station, finishing assembly line 4, and the organisational decision on the batch size. After that, we decided to perform a simulation study to test the impact of several interventions that could be made on these 4 scenarios. The simulation study showed us that interventions made on the pre-assembly line, finishing assembly line 4, and the batch size, could significantly decrease the throughput time. On a short-term basis the throughput time could be reduced to on average 3,5 working days and on long-term basis even to 2,5 working days. Based on these findings, we made several recommendations to Nijhuis Toelevering B.V. on how the throughput time could be reduced to desired norm of 3 working days for all batch types.