Practical simulation application: Evaluation of process control parameters in Twisted-Pair Cables manufacturing system

Intensive competition and rapid technology development of Twisted-Pair Cables (TPC) industry have left no room for competing manufacturers to harbour system inefficiencies. TPC are used in various communication and networks hardware applications; their manufacturing facilities face many challenges including various product configurations with different equipment settings, different product flows and Work in Process (WIP) space limitations. The quest for internal efficiency and external effectiveness forces companies to align their internal settings and resources with external requirements/orders, or in different words, significant factors must be set appropriately and identified prior to manufacturing processes. Integrated definition models (IDEF0, IDEF3) in conjunction with a simulation model and a design of experiments (DOE) have been developed to characterize the TPC production system, identify the significant process parameters and examine various production setting scenarios aiming to get the best product flow time.