Simulation test bed for manufacturing analysis: comparison of bottleneck detection methods for AGV systems

The performance of a manufacturing or logistic system is determined by its constraints. Therefore, in order to improve the performance, it is necessary to improve the constraints, also known as the bottlenecks. Finding the bottlenecks, however, is not easy. This paper compares the two most common bottleneck detection methods, based on the utilization and the waiting time, with the shifting bottleneck detection method developed by us, for AGV systems. We find that the two conventional methods have many shortcomings compared to the shifting bottleneck detection method. In the example presented here, conventional methods are either unable to detect the bottleneck at all or detect the bottleneck incorrectly. The shifting bottleneck detection method not only finds the bottlenecks but also determines the magnitude of the primary and secondary bottlenecks.