Simulation as decision support tool : A case study with data analysis, VSM and simulation applied to an ETO system

Sammanfattning: Digital transformation is rising rapidly, where absolutely any kind of data is readily available. With the rise in digital information and technologies, businesses are aiming at measuring their processes and thereby getting better control over their operations. Industries are striving to increase efficiency and productivity to survive in the high global competitive market by adopting a digital tool. Simulation has been one of the most common tools of Industry 4.0 that allows a virtual representation of the real system. The use of simulation has tremendously increased in manufacturing industries due to its advantages where changes can be made and checked virtually before implementing them to the physical system. Data acquisition has been an important aspect that remains unfocussed especially in Engineer to Order (ETO) and Make to Order (MTO) environments where the production processes are complex, nonstandardised and depend heavily on manual work leading to a prolonged barrier towards digitalisation. So, can data create new values for companies? Are firms realising the importance of data? As the economy is moving towards a more data-driven state, it is essential for companies to realise the importance of data and find efficient ways of data collection. The thesis is based on a case study at an electrical transformer manufacturing firm taking its first step towards digital technology to have better control over its manufacturing processes. However, this transformation is primarily hindered by the limited availability of data and poor data quality due to manual data acquisition methods. Analysis of organisational documents and Value Stream Mapping (VSM) have been used to analyse missing primary and secondary production data. The results of this study conclude that modelling of the system can give additional data gaps, and the simulation model can be served as a powerful decision support tool for the firm. This switch in approach from intuition-based decision making to more fact-based decision making can result in better planning and control over the production. This thesis will lay the foundation for studies related to data acquisition and simulation in an ETO environment as it is not widely discussed in the existing literature