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Answers to your questions...

In order to help you make decisions, process simulation brings answers to any type of question.
Here are some of them.

Automated manufacturing

 Process

  • Should I plan a step where parts are grouped together to optimize the steps that will follow?
  • Should I have several production lines in order to separately manufacture parts with different characteristics?

Layout

  • Which layout limits travel distances?
  • What distance do parts travel? What is the impact on throughput time?

Machines

  • Should the machines handle only one step or several ones?
  • I have the choice between several solutions/machines, which one suits my needs best?

 Breakdowns

  • Is having a redundancy on certain machines necessary in order to decrease breakdowns’ influence?
  • How much productivity is lost in case of a breakdown depending on when it occurs?

Storage

  • Which storage capacity should I plan while taking optimistic production quantity, defect rates, and potential breakdowns into account?
  • Which storage solution is the most suitable: manual, stacker crane, carousel, etc.?

Transport & conveying

  • Which conveying solutions to choose?
  • How many shuttles/vehicles to use to distribute parts without saturating the system?
  • What is the distance traveled by shuttles/vehicles? How much time is lost because of the network’s saturation?

Calendar

  • What is the most suitable maintenance workforce’s calendar?
  • Is a constant human presence needed?

Quality defects

  • How much does quality defects weigh on production capacity and throughput time?
  • How to size the production line while taking defect rates and their variability into account?

Logistics

Service rate

  • Taking demand forecasts and statistical variability into account, what is the service rate that I will be able to provide to my clients?

Picking

  • Are there advantages in grouping picking orders? On which criteria should I group them?

Inventory

  • When and at which frequency should inventory be checked?
  • What is the impact of stock-taking on the operation of the usual tasks of the warehouse?

Storage

  • Which storage solutions should I use?
  • How much stock coverage per product to plan in order to fill a variable demand?
  • How to store the parts while anticipating and optimizing their future picking?

Transport & conveying

  • What is the optimal number of shuttles/vehicles to keep up with the storage/picking orders?
  • Is the conveying system that I am planning to use suitable?
  • What distance do the shuttles/vehicles travel? On which frequency should then their maintenance be done?

Distribution

  • Which expedition logic to adopt?
  • Is it better to group the shipments or should they be sent as soon as possible?

Manufacturing

 Process

  • What is the impact of adding or removing a step from my process? Will the workers be under/over-loaded? How will the throughput time be affected?
  • Should I split the production in several lines, each focusing on different products/processes?

Planning & scheduling

  • How to ensure a sufficient availability of parts during production?
  • How to take into account the variability of the quantities to produce and of the workforce’s availability?
  • Should we execute the production orders as soon as possible or groups them by product types and execute them by batches?

Machines

  • What is the optimal number of machines needed?
  • How does throughput time change if I add or remove an equipment?

Breakdowns

  • What is the influence of breakdowns on productivity?
  • Are there machines that I should duplicate in order to avoid too much slowdown if they fail?

Quality defects

  • What is the weight of defect rates on throughput time?
  • What would be the throughput gains if I managed to decrease defect rates?

Calendar

  • What working calendar allows to reach our productivity goals?
  • How to optimize transitions between shifts to avoid unavailability of machines/workplaces?

Human resources

  • How many resources do I need?
  • What skill levels and versatility for my workers are needed to reach my production goals?

Absences

  • What is the influence of workers’ absences on productivity?
  • What happens if key workers are absent at the same time? How to duplicate and distribute their skills?