Experienced and wise industrial engineering educators and practitioners have long understood that industrial engineering is a coherent discipline encompassing techniques that work best synergistically, not a motley collection of specialized techniques each isolated in a separate chimney. As an example of the synergies which industrial engineering can bring to process improvement in a production environment, this case study presents the integrated use of process simulation, production

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... and detailed analysis of material-handling methods and their improvement. The study undertook the identification and improvement of production and scheduling policies to the benefit of a manufacturing process whose original throughput capacity fell significantly short of high and increasing demand. use of simulation results as an input to scheduling and the schedules so generated as a simulation input parameter. The capability of scheduling tools to analyze thousands of alternatives quickly combined with the power of simulation to provide detailed statistical insights into specific scenarios allows these methods to effectively complement each other. This two layer approach is used for the optimal design of manufacturing system fed with robust schedules thus resulting in substantial productivity gains. OVERVIEW OF MANUFACTURING SYSTEM 2.1