Investigating the Behavior of a Shop Order Manufacturing Sistem by Using Simulation

The main goal of this paper is to describe the development and the first use of a simulation model related to a real manufacturing system devoted to produce furniture for schools, universities and offices. The simulation model is equipped with a dedicated animation and input/output section (that allow changing different system parameters and monitoring multiple performance measures). After the verification and validation, the simulation model has been used to evaluate the economic convenience in acquiring some new automated machines for the painting department. To this end, the performances of the actual production scenario are compared with the performances of a new potential production scenario (characterized by the new automated painting machines) and an economic analysis based on the discounted payback period is carried out.