simulation designing paper

SIMULATION DESIGNING

PAPER.

A Written Simulation Design for Producing Plastic Packaging

for A Product.

By Suhail Attar

Dr. Brian Galli

System Simulation

December, 16, 2014

Attar, 1

Table of Contents

Executive Summary .......................................................................................................................2

Problem statement .........................................................................................................................3

Objectives/Goals of the simulation ...............................................................................................4

The purpose of the proposal..........................................................................................................4

Assumption of simulation ..............................................................................................................6

Constraints......................................................................................................................................6

Process Map ....................................................................................................................................9

The Process and data collection ..................................................................................................10

Statistical Probability Measurement Methods ..........................................................................12

Validation Plan ............................................................................................................................14

Verification Plan .........................................................................................................................14

Next Step Plan ..............................................................................................................................15

Works Cited ..................................................................................................................................16

Attar, 2

Executive Summary:

Company A is a growing company that manufactures the majority of its products in China.

The company focused its sales in the USA because there is a high interest of its products in it.

Primarily the company makes pocket and small projectors, an area of electronics products that is

currently having good conditions in the USA, and projected to grow more.

Figure 1 Pocket Projector Forecast1

This paper aims to only focus in the issue of product design manufacturing in the USA

illustrated by two unreal companies; Company A for the actual product manufacturer that will

demand the plastic and include it in the final assembly; and Company B the supplier who will

produce the designed plastic for the product. This paper includes a process map showing all the

steps that are taken in between both companies. The paper also, provides statistical data methods

and theories with the related analysis. In addition the paper will address some operational issues

related to the process.

1 Pocket Projector Shipment Forecast to Reach 142M Units by 2018, DisplaySearch Reports, search in

displaysearch.com

Attar, 3

Problem statement:

Due to the high demand of its products in the USA, Company A is feeling that it needs to

adapt a more flexible production method (lean production). Last year, Company A started to

develop an assembly plant near its headquarter and distribution center in Tustin, CA, so it can cut

waste and have a better inventory management resulting from the flexibility it aimed for. This

assembly plant only assembles one product of its many types of products the company sells, which

is the smallest projector it have, known in the market as Pocket or Pico Projector. The company

chose this product because it is the product that is having a very high demand in the US compared

to its other products in other countries.

The problem of less flexibility still tackles the production of this product because the

company has just started the assembly last year, and most of the suppliers are located overseas or

in very distant places in the US and Mexico nearly 80% of the suppliers are located in a distant

further than 200 mi from this assembly line that is located in Tustin, CA.

The company will start to deploy the lean production method of a newer version of the

product it is assembling in Tustin, CA, where it will adapt a Just-In-Time supplying method. The

company is aiming to reduce the high percentage of suppliers form far places and for this year it

will start with the plastic exterior packaging of the product because it is mainly changing the

product design, in addition to few other interior electronics inside the projector to improve

performance. The company had planned to deploy the method with the newer product by

contracting with Company B nearly 12 mi away from the assembly plant in Anaheim, CA.

Attar, 4

Objectives/Goals of the simulation:

Company A and B:

Develop a design that would be appealing to the market, and fitting for the production.

Company A:

Reducing the suppliers who are over 200 mi away from 80% to 60%.

Conduct a just in time method between its suppliers.

Eliminate problems relating to oversees shipping.

Maximize Profit.

Company B:

Produce the batches in time.

Ship the batches in time.

Minimize costs.

The purpose of the proposal:

The reason Company A chose the US is due to many reason mainly the benefit of new

technologies that would allow plastic to be processed from US shale gas according to Dr. Jonathan

Rich Berry Plastics CEO who stated, “We make a lot of different type of products, we mold those

out of polyethylene, and polypropylene. Today those kind of plastic have to come from oil but one

thing we are excited about is the development of low cost and relatively available North American

Attar, 5

Shale Gas. Our raw material can come from gas, and as that infrastructure and that investment

goes in its going to be a tremendous benefit to very plastic.”1

In addition, the labor cost for molding plastic in the US is not costly at all because it is highly

automated2 and benefiting from flexible production resulting in very low variable costs due to high

unit produced with low labor cost and the new advances in manufacturing plastic from gas as

mentioned that will help reducing the raw material prices.

Also, one of the main reason why it is very helpful for the company to manufacture nearby its

assembly plant is simply because it will have better quality results. The main advantage of the Just-

In-Time method taken from the Lean Production approach is that it prizes “flexibility (rather than

efficiency) and quality (rather than quantity),” compared to Mass Production.3 This method is

widely known in the industrial and manufacturing fields that it is the method that revolutionized

Quality, when the Japanese companies such as Toyota Adapted it in the1970s by Taiichi Ohno.4

Finally the major reason why the supplier Off-Shore are not appealing for the nature of the

produced item, and other major factors. According to Autronic Plastic case study titled, “OFF-

SHORE PRICING IS NOT ALWAYS CHEAPER THAN "MADE IN USA" PRODUCTS,” a list

of disadvantages of Off-Shore sourcing mentions that.5

Design and approval process requires constant back-and-forth shipping of parts and

samples resulting in a delay to bringing products to market

1 Taking Stock with Pimm Fox interview with Berry Plastics CEO on Bloomberg Radio. http://youtu.be/5DMmomEjDpo 2 APPLYING AUTOMATION TO PLASTIC INJECTION MOLDING AND ASSEMBLY REDUCES COST. apisolution.com/. 3 Operations Management Creating Value Along the Supply Chain 7th Edition, See page 7 4 Operations Management Creating Value Along the Supply Chain 7th Edition, See page 8 5 OFF-SHORE PRICING IS NOT ALWAYS CHEAPER THAN "MADE IN USA" PRODUCTS

http://apisolution.com/case-study-made-in-usa.php

Attar, 6

Shipping a tool and/or parts can add tens of thousands of dollars and more than 8 weeks

to project lead times while increasing the potential risk for damage in-transit

Language barriers and different time zones create communication difficulties

Mold design is not always complete or as expected, making transfer of tool difficult if

not impossible

Instability in foreign currencies can lead to pricing fluctuations and higher costs

Unknown stability or reputability of offshore company leave customer susceptible to

"disappearing act"

Assumption of simulation:

The simulation will be as an example of how a company interested in ordering and

manufacturing plastic can deal with the operational issues addressed in the paper. These

operational issues are mainly the statistical information and the process map with some additional

information. The paper addresses these issues to ensure quality of the process, as well as an

overview of the operation of the process.

Constraints:

Company A

Capital to assemble first 4000 units.

Fixed Costs

o Inventory Space.

o Utility Expenses.

o Factory Space if addition is needed.

Attar, 7

Contract price between Company B decided by a quote depending on the

production level and maintenance, such as if Company A desires to have an

operator to take care of the process.

Direct Labor, labor involved in manufacturing.

o Assembly Line Employees (10). (Average salary in that area: $32,000)

Total cost $320,000 per year.

Overhead Costs

o Maintenance Mechanics (3). (Average salary in that area: $34,000)1

Total Cost $102,000 per year.

o Management (4).

o Product / Industrial Designer.

o Packaging.

Selling price Per Unit 189.00

Cost Per Unit 150.00

Target revenue $756,000 form this product.

Company B for Company A’s order.

Material Cost for Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) Resins is about $1.29

per lb. 2

Overhead Costs

1 Go to http://www.simplyhired.com/salaries-k-assembly-line-worker-l-murrieta-ca-jobs.html 2 Go to http://www.premierplasticresins.com/abs/abs-black-4-izod-1000-lb-gaylord.html

Attar, 8

o Maintenance Mechanics (1). (Average salary in that area: $34,000 about

$30 an hour)1

Total Cost $102,000 per year.

o Packaging.

o Management (4).

o Product / Industrial Designer for designing the molds.

Note. That the focus of this paper is the product design manufacturing, including plastic part in

assembly afterword, and the supply and demand relation between the two companies. The

insourcing that Company A did for the other parts of the whole product the pocket projector was

already done.

1 http://www.simplyhired.com/salaries-k-assembly-line-worker-l-murrieta-ca-jobs.html

Attar, 9

Process Map

Attar, 10

The Process and data collection.

1. Desining the product. In this step company A will consult an industrial designing firm

to design the product.

2. If the design is proper. In this step company A will show the design to company B to

apply to production. if the design needs further adjustment company B will send it back

to company A, and company A will contact the design firm to apply the requested

changes.

3. Adjust the automation and the injection molds. In this step company B will design

the molds for the designed product which will take about one day, and program robots

Figure 2 Basic Design by Suhail Attar

Attar, 11

process, which will perform the product inspection by laser, some minor assembly, and

packaging the processed plastic which will be done in the same day.

4. Order the first patch. After company B does the adjustments, company A will order

the first patch. The first patch’s quantity is determine by the number of products

company A wants to assemble, which determined by the managerial accounting and

operation research employees.

5. Buy the Raw Material. Plastic Resins. This step is performed by company B, which

they will buy the plastic risen upon the criteria of the design in which what type of

polymers it needs in the design.

6. Produce the Plastic. Company B will perform the production and stop by the time they

finish the patch using two machines. The first one will suck the types of resins and

deposit it in the hopper of the second machine where it will store the plastic resins ready

Figure 3Plastic Injection molding process credits VulcanMold.

Attar, 12

to be processed. The machine will transfer the resins to the heaters which will melt and

mix the resins by the reciprocating screw. At the end the plastic get injected in the

molded parts where it takes the shape of the design and cooled, so they come out soled.

After all this is done the molded plastic comes out it is transferred to the inspection part

of the machine where it gets packaged by a robot in the machine the machine can

produce 5 plastic in one minutes.

7. Package the product. The product will be packaged by the robots as soon as it comes

out from production. Each carton box will take 12 plastics.

8. Shipping. The product will be shipped as soon as possible after it is packaged because

the assembly plant is located near the plastic factory and it is not in their interest to fill

their warehouse for a long time, which usually takes about one day at most. Each truck

will take up to 500 carton box. It will take at most 30 minutes to get to company A.

9. Including the designed plastic in the assembly.

The factory takes 10 minutes for each employee to assemble 4 product due to some

human involvement for some complication.

10. Storing the Product in inventory.

Statistical Probability Measurement Methods.

The statistical information will be provided for each step from the process map.

1. Designing the product. Does not need probability measurement.

2. Design inspection. Does not need probability measurement.

3. Designing the Molds Does not need probability measurement.

4. Order the first patch. Does not need probability measurement.

Attar, 13

5. Buy the Raw Material. Does not need probability measurement.

6. Produce the Plastic.

a. and R chart

b. Normal distribution

c. First Pass Yield.

d. Binomial distribution

e. Exponential distribution

7. Package the product.

a. and R chart

8. Shipping.

a. Normal distribution.


a. Binomial distribution

b. Exponential distribution

c. First Pass Yield

d. Learning Curve for assemblers.

e. and R chart for run times to finish tasks.

10. Storing the Product in inventory. Does not need probability measurement.

Attar, 14

Validation Plan

It will take one minute to produce 4 plastic from the plastic injection machine.

o There will be 8 molds in the machine where the plastic would get injected.

o 1 mold for each side of the product which in this case 2 sides.

Time to machine on batch 17 h

o Derived from the order of 4000

It will take each employee Company A 10 minutes to assemble 4 products.

o In one batch cycle 40 units are produced due to 10 workers.

Time for assembly of one batch is about 17 h

Units sold 3898

Verification Plan

This process would not allow for a large amount of error due to the highly automated

characteristics of it.

1. Produce the Plastic.

a. and R chart for run times to know if the machine is producing the product

properly in the time plan.

b. Normal distribution for measurements, to know if the units produced are in a proper

shape and also indicates if the machine need inspection.

Attar, 15

c. Binomial distribution for number of successes per batch.

d. Exponential distribution for time between scraped items at inspections.

2. Package the product.

a. and R chart for run times to finish tasks. To be informed that the step would not

take a long time.

3. Shipping.

a. Normal distribution for time of shipping. To know that it would be delivered

properly, even though shipment is no a major issue.


a. Binomial distribution for number of successes per batch.

b. Exponential distribution for time between scraped items at inspections

c. Learning Curve for assemblers.

d. and R chart for run times to finish tasks.

Next Step Plan.

The next step is to design the stimulation and make all the necessary calculations,

so an actual estimations can be generated. The major concern in this process is the plastic

casting and the product assembly. However, the fact that the company is adapting a just in

time supply chain method and the high automation of the process the quality issue is not a

very complicated one. The Company can focus in the business side and try to have higher

growth resulting from the newly studied simulation.

Attar, 16

Works Cited

1. "APPLYING AUTOMATION TO PLASTIC INJECTION MOLDING AND

ASSEMBLY REDUCES COST." Http://apisolution.com/. Apisolution, 2014. Web. 14

Oct. 2014. <http://apisolution.com/case-study-automation.php>.

2. "OFF-SHORE PRICING IS NOT ALWAYS CHEAPER THAN "MADE IN USA"

PRODUCTS." Http://apisolution.com/. Apisolution, 2014. Web. 14 Oct. 2014.

<http://apisolution.com/case-study-made-in-usa.php>.

3. Taking Stock with Pimm Fox: Berry Plastics CEO on Patent Pending Versalite

Technology. Perf. Pim Fox, Dr. Jonathan Rich. Bloomberg, 2013.

4. "Pocket Projector Shipment Forecast to Reach 142M Units by 2018, DisplaySearch

Reports." DisplaySearch Is the Worldwide Leader in Display Market Research and

Consulting. 28 Apr. 2010. Web. 2 Dec. 2014.

5. "Simply Salary." Assembly Line Worker Salaries in Murrieta, CA. Web.

<http://www.simplyhired.com/salaries-k-assembly-line-worker-l-murrieta-ca-

jobs.html>.

6. "ABS Black - 4 Izod - 1000 Lb Gaylord." Premier Plastic Resins. Web.

<http://www.premierplasticresins.com/abs/abs-black-4-izod-1000-lb-

gaylord.html>.

7. "VulcanMold.com." China Plastic Injection Molding Supplier -. Web.

<http://www.vulcanmold.com/article/Plastic-Injection-molding-process.html>.

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