Modeling and simulation of DBR and S-DBR systems for teaching and learning

• Grant number: 23/05412-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: October 01, 2023
• End date: September 30, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Production Engineering - Production Management
• Principal Investigator: Fernando Bernardi de Souza
• Grantee: João Kennedy Rodrigues Leitão Filho
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FE). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Bauru. Bauru , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The Theory of Constraints (TOC) and its production planning and control techniques, such as the Drum-Buffer-Rope (DBR), Simplified Drum-Buffer-Rope (S-DBR) and Buffer Management systems, are based on several concepts, some relatively complex and difficult to understand, mainly for students and managers with little or no contact with the subject. Helping to understand the many different variations of constraints, such as internal, external or interactive, and their impacts on the performance of manufacturing environments, is a constant challenge for educators in the subject. A ludic and dynamic way of explaining them is through games, such as the Dice Game, initially presented in the book "The Goal", by Eliyahu Goldratt. The use of business games as a pedagogical tool finds support in the literature on active methodologies, which makes the student the central element in the teaching-learning process. This project aims to use the ideas present in Dice Game to create and simulate models in the software Anylogic in order to support, through game based practices, the teaching of DBR, S-DBR and BM systems in job shops with internal, external or interactive constraints. As a complementary result, it is also intended to prepare guidebooks that will serve to help the use the models in the classroom, both for students and educators.