Seyed Mojtaba Sajadi - Faculty of Entrepreneurship, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran;
Nima F. Hashemi - School of Industrial Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran;

Making a decision on production planning has always been one of the most important challenges in the manufacturing industry. Glass industry is one of the industries in which the production planning plays an important role due to its characteristics and manufacturing constraints. Glass container manufacturing is one of the main parts of the glass industry. In this study, in addition to reviewing the process and characteristics of the glass container manufacturing industry, we focused on the optimal selection of production scenarios using the simulation technique. For this purpose, one of the major companies in this industry was studied. The focus of this research was on the discrete part of the manufacturing process. Products have different production rates and, in some cases, apart from the characteristics of products themselves, the type of machine or equipment used also affects their production rates. It is worth mentioning that the failure probability, repair time, and quality control of products were also considered in the simulation model. In this study, three different production scenarios were examined. In other words, due to the limited number of lines and machines as well as their production capacity, the combination of different products on the existing machines and lines was investigated under three scenarios. Finally, according to the results, the best production scenario was determined.

Glass industry, Simulation, Production planning, Glass production process, Arena.