Supportive role of the simulation in the process of ship engine crankcase production process of reengineering (case study)

The following paper presents the results of a case study conducted in a company producing engines for ships. The scope of the research enhances the elaboration of the method of reengineering the production process with the support of simulation. Authors present the background of the research including the comparative analysis of five different reengineering methodologies. On analysis, the conclusion is defined that there is a gap in reengineering methodologies since they do not account for industry-based requirements for simulation. To fulfill this gap the Petri nets application for simulation was proposed. Authors discuss the most distinctive elements of a Petri net and define the methodology of manufacturing processes modeling. The obtained output was not sufficient to make a final decision about the real reengineering process. Therefore, an additional analysis with Rapid RE (Rapid Reengineering) methodology was performed. The proposal of the potential hybrid solution combining the advantages of both methods, i.e. Petri Net and Rapid Re, is presented.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the analyzed company the need for a reengineering of the production process of a ship engine crankcase was identified. Applying simulation to the reengineering process was beneficial as any changes in the real production process are connected with serious costs, due to a big size of the product and application of the highly specialized processing tools. The aim of the simulation was to provide the guarantee that the chosen solution would be suitable for the analyzed company. To perform a simulation, it is necessary to collect process data, right simulation and analysis. For the reengineering process it is proper to perform a simulation for the actual state of the process and for the postulated state — in other words — to perform a simulation before and after the reengineering. The Petri net methodology was applied in creating the simulation. To collect data for the postulated state Rapid Re methodology was used. The research conducted in the analyzed company proved that the most suitable solution for a similar problem would be a hybrid method combining features of a Petri net and Rapid Re.