製鞋主要可分為三段製程：裁加、針車、成型，每一段都可視為獨立的生產線，其中針車是很重要的一部分。針車包含的工序複雜，加上機台自動化程度不高，所以它需倚賴大量的人力操作機台。在針車線的生產管理面，常見的議題有：生產數量的設定、加工批量的選擇、人力配置方法…等，然而這些參數設定的好與壞不是那麼的直觀，在不知道哪種設定是最佳條件的情況下，工廠主管往往透過他們過去的經驗來作判斷及抉擇。
本研究致力於建構一具代表性的製鞋業針車線模擬模型，並透過模型來探討不同生產參數對於鞋業績效指標的影響，常見績效指標如：每日產量、每人每小時生產雙數、生產週期時間以及在製品水準。研究結果顯示，不同參數水準的設定對於系統績效指標的確有顯著的影響，而透過實驗設計的手法，本研究也找出了不同生產狀況下對應的最佳的參數組合。

There are three major processes in footwear manufacturing factories: cutting/preparation, stitching and assembling, each process can be considered as a single production line. Among these, stitching is the most critical process because it contains many complex manufacturing processes which are not easy to be automated. A typical stitching process relies on many skilled workers to operator the stitching machines, it is the process that requires the most labors in footwear manufacturing factories. When talking to the management of stitching line, there are some issues regarding to parameters settings such as production target, batch size and human resource arrangement, etc. However, it is not easy to know which parameters setting is the optimal design for the current production line. Therefore, factory managers usually make decisions and set those parameters settings based on their past experiences.
This research plans to develop a representative simulation model for footwear stitching line and justify the effect of the different parameters settings on the Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) such as output per day, Pairs Produced per Hour (PPH), cycle time and Work-In-Process (WIP) level. The simulation results show that different parameters settings do have significant impact on the KPIs, and through the techniques of experimental design, this research also identified the optimal parameters settings for the factory.

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