Poster
Client Context
Kliklok Corporation is a company that designs, manufactures, builds, and services packaging machinery, primarily for the food industry. Kliklok Corporation’s Decatur facility employs 175 personnel. Our system, Manufacturing, is a job shop utilizing a process layout and is responsible for fabricating parts.
Project Objective
Kliklok Corporation utilizes an average of X annual overtime hours in Manufacturing to meet the need for additional capacity during seasons of high demand. The work orders are currently being manually prioritized using the earliest due date. Despite the overtime hours, an unacceptable number of work orders missed their due dates to their internal or external customers. Our team’s goal is to maintain productivity and reduce work order tardiness within Manufacturing through three opportunities for improvement: (1)streamlining the work order scheduling process, (2) analyzing labor and machine capacity, and (3) creating an improved shop floor layout.
Design Strategy
We designed a optimization model written in OPL (Optimization Programming Language) that used constraint programming as a means to quickly schedule 2,000-4,000 tasks at a time. The model also includes a decision to outsource parts during periods of high demand. We analyzed the traffic intensity of their 22 Work Centers and conducted a cost benefit analysis on adding/reducing machinery and headcount. We used graph theory, queuing theory and simulation to create and evaluate an improved shop floor layout.
Deliverables
Kliklok Corporation received three deliverables related to the goal: (1) a scheduling tool that minimizes work order tardiness, (2) a cost benefit analysis addressing their need for additional capacity, and (3) an improved plant layout.
Project Information
Student Team
Farah Alfalih, Christina Mathew, John C. Smith, Irene Vargheese, Oldrin Vasquez, Nehal Vyas
Faculty Advisor
Faculty Evaluator
