A Comparison of Job-Shop and Group Technology Using Simulation by ARENA

Production planning is performed through diverse methods according to the type of the system it is structured upon. One of the most important steps before production planning is to determine which system best fits the firm, and how the facilities should be designed. Both job-shop and group-technology systems have their own pros and cons, each of which is suitable to a specific kind of factory. On the other hand, performance measurement is also important in terms of both productivity and queue factors. A good method to measure the performance is computer simulation by soft wares such as ARENA. This paper utilizes the software for separately simulating both the job-shop and group-technology systems for specific firm, and then compares the results. The results show that the group-technology system is better than the job-shop system in both productivity and queue factors, and it is highly recommended that the system should be changed.

Keywords:

Production System Design , Job shop , Group Technology , Cellular Manufacturing , Computer Simulation