Design and evaluation of furniture finishing systems

The pallet conveyor finishing systems used in many furniture factories are complex mixtures of manual and mechanical operations. Dynamic operation times, crewing patterns, line loading patterns, chemical coating formulations, and production requirements create the need for periodic system evaluation and design modifications. In this paper, we describe a combined deterministic/stochastic modeling system that evaluates alternative finishing room workstation designs. ActiveX® automation seamlessly integrates a spreadsheet interface with the simulation model, allowing non-simulation experts to perform the analysis. The simulation model automatically extracts the data from the spreadsheet and evaluates the stochastic behavior of individual workstations. The spreadsheet and simulation models are used in an interactive and complementary fashion to rapidly evaluate alternative designs or operational policies. Use of the modeling system is illustrated in a case study.