Cost reduction of the head stack assembly process in the hard disk drive industry with simulation modeling and optimization: A case study

This research with the main goal of cost reduction in the hard disk drive industry focused on the head stack assembly process is action research between university research teams and industry. It aims to study the head stack assembly process and to investigate the problems that need to be solved in order to reduce costs by using computer simulations and optimizations. Steps in simulation methodology were applied starting from data collection, model building, model verification, model validation, experimentation, and optimization. Several factors and their effects were investigated that could lead to production improvement of 7.94% increase in numbers of assembled head stack or 7.32% decrease in production cycle time. This paper demonstrates simulation optimization methodology applied to problem solving. Also it illustrates the successful case of using simulation optimization in cost reduction