Georgantzas, Nicolas C. with James S. Fraser and Elvan Tugsuz, "Bipartisan Process Improvement in Polymer Coating: Combining System Dynamics with Statistical Process Control (SPC)", 1995
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A firm's end-product waste problem motivated us to investigate the structure underlying a polymer coating process (PCP) by combining system dynamics simulation modeling with statistical process control (SPC). Our bipartisan approach proved to be rather powerful: not only it provides insight about the negative feedback-loop structure between temperature distribution and polymer thickness but also allows assessing the potential affects of leverage points on the stability of the polymer manufacturing process directly from the process capability and control charts. The new knowledge gained yields a dramatic improvement in the firm's end-product quality and productivity. Worth nothing is our transforming of the heat control equations--which correspond to the gelling operations of polymer foam and be solved using standard Runge-Kutta methods. Consequently, our essay illustrates how to effectively handle parabolic partial differential equations using conventional system dynamics simulation software.