Reducing the Setup of a Tubettes Machine

This paper deals with the manufacturing process of tubettes (tubes made by gluing strips of paper), whose preparation of tubettes machine occupies a considerable portion of production time. The paper strips are packed in paper reels and some of them may be used between one and making another tubettes. Two mathematical models for the minimization of change reels are shown. The results obtained by simulations with the solver Xpress-MP were better than those used by the company, with reductions of up to 37% in the number of changes.