Productivity Monitoring of Land Pipelines Welding via Control Chart Using the Monte Carlo Simulation

Pedro Mattos Tabim¹, Miguel Luiz Ribeiro Ferreira²

¹Department of Graduation in Civil Engineering, Federal Fluminense University, Niterói, Brazil.
²Mechanical Engineering Department, Federal Fluminense University, Niterói, Brazil.

DOI: 10.4236/jsea.2015.810051                

Abstract

This article evaluates the efficacy of a tool developed in the Monte Carlo simulation and referred to as control chart. This tool is used in order to detect changes in productivity resulting from the occurrence of a given event during the welding of land pipelines with self shielded flux cored wire (FCAW). The elaboration of this control chart is based on the data from the Cumulative Probability Density Function (CDF) curve, and generated in the Monte Carlo simulation using version 6 of the Palisade Corporation’s @Risk software for Excel, in a sample with productivity data from 29 welded joints, gathered through direct observation which considers the productive and unproductive times. In order to evaluate the control chart efficacy, the performance of welding productivity with a FCAW process with low alloy steels has been assessed during 29 days, summing up to 842 welded joints registered on “Relatórios Diários de Obras” (Construction Works Daily Reports). The results show that the model developed for the control chart elaboration is effective in monitoring the productivity of the observed welding procedure.

Keywords

Monte Carlo Simulation, Welding, Land Pipelines, Productivity

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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