Production Improvement By Using Simulation And Lean Techniques: A Case Study In Engineered Wood Production Company

Abstract

Glued laminated timber (glulam) is an engineered wood product that may be used in building as an eco-friendly material. In general, curved glulam beams take longer to produce than straight glulam beams. This research examines approaches to improve the glulam manufacturing process by identifying the source of waste. A simulation model is developed for glulam manufacturing and verified using a case study of a gridshell project in a small to medium-sized business (SME). Sources of waste are identified, lean improvement approaches are offered, and lean solutions are evaluated using a simulation model. The results indicate that cycle time and wait time have decreased. Since the entire removal of waste may be costly and challenging for a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) when first implementing lean methodologies, the impact of implementing simply a 50% reduction in non value-adding activities is examined.