Knowledge-based simulation of a final assembly process in the hard disk drive industry

Final assembly is an important stage in the manufacture of Hard Disk Drives (HDD). Due to the dynamic and uncertain characteristics in the final assembly process, many problems such as inventory buildup, long leadtime, etc. widely exist. In order to man-age and control the assembly line effectively, as well as reduce the inventory and im-prove the throughput, computer simulation is an obvious potential solution. However, traditional simulation studies focus almost exclusively on representing stochastic sys-tems using random dynamics and/or precise dynamics. Actually, between these polar states lies the concept of muddy dynamics. This project takes the full spectrum of these dynamics into consideration to enhance simulation results via knowledge inten-sive modeling approach. Furthermore, the report describes a framework of knowledge based modelling and its usage to perform analysis and evaluation in hard disk drive final assembly process. The dynamic model is constructed by considering explicitly the participation of all labour and machine stochastic variables in the constructed model to conduct performance analysis. The report concludes by comparing simula-tion results derived from using conventional versus knowledge-based modelling tech-niques.Master of Science (Computer Integrated Manufacturing