Optimisation of the exchange process 20 MN press line

Custom production is characterized by the fact that orders come to the company at random, depending on the needs of clients and the orders of the customer that he receives himself. The automotive industry is characterized by the “just-in-time” system, which means that semifinished installation products are produced to produce the assembly line exactly when they are needed, which basically means a very large logistics stock, as well as a big mouthful for semifinished businesses. In this way, they gain space that would otherwise be occupied by a large warehouse to store semi-finished products before installation. Impol manufactures a large part of its manufacturing products precisely for the automotive industry, which is why the company is very closely involved in so called “time and logistics war”. We deal with these problems in the company and try to solve such problems in various ways. One way to improve production results is to combine several similar orders to apply them to the production process in succession and thus save some time which make us more competitive and more flexible. There are many rules in the literature for sorting work orders, but not all of them produce good results, which is why it is important to choose rules that are appropriate for the type of orders, the type of machine and the strategy of the company. However, since such rules cannot always be applied, everything must be done depending on the order. This sometimes results in multiple tool changes and machine adjustments in the production process. Such replacements, however, can always be optimized to shorten the down time a little while changing gears. In the production process of Impol, a company that processes aluminum and manufactures aluminum semi-finished products, as the name of the plant reveals itself, is made in addition to drawn and pressed rods and profiles, and seamless pipes. This process is performed on a specially designed press that has the ability to squeeze full rods or profiles and seamless tubes. On this machine, when replacing the program from the compression of bars or profiles to seamless pipes or vice versa, the process of changing the compression and re-setting the machine must be carried out, which now means an average of three to four hours of downtime on the machine. In the thesis paper we examined three different optimization options for optimizing the process of changing, thus shortening the time of changing the compression process from three to four hours to two to three hours, which means about 50% shorter change of the compression process. On the basis of analytical and economic calculations, we proved which method was most appropriate. 

AUTHOR

Matija Janžič

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