Production Support 56 have always found manufacturing simulation to be a powerful tool when designing new production facilities. This article lists some of the reasons we think it is so important. We also provide links to a successful case study where we used simulation to help aid the design of a fertiliser plant.
10 reasons simulation is a must for anybody designing a production facility:
1- You have already generated the required information during the design process. It is a small step to feed it into simulation software and see your design in action.
2- You can identify weaknesses and bottlenecks at the design stage, before pouring concrete.
3- You can verify your design meets its brief. Reducing the need to add unnecessary capacity.
4- You’ll have a visual representation of your design, allowing you to communicate its benefits clearly to the stakeholders.
5- The stakeholders can interrogate the design giving them confidence that it meets their demands. This is especially important if they control the budget.
6- You can test all the parameters to determine the most critical. This allows you to focus design efforts in the most important areas.
7- The simulation produces clear and unbiased data. Removing the stress from decision making.
8- With the right information the simulation can generate energy, labour and material usages, giving you accurate operational costs for your design.
9- With accurate labour usage you can plan how you are going to operate the production facility. The information is there to determine the optimum shift patterns, manning levels and skill matrix. You can then test your operational design on the simulation.
10- You remove the worry about if the design will work and instead can focus on making the design better.
Simulation of a Fertiliser Plant design
We have worked with many engineering design companies on new production facility designs, and simulation has always helped them make their design better. Last year we supported Allied Protek by creating a simulation of their fertiliser plant design.
“Production Support 56 were brought in late to the project and quickly produced an accurate simulation of our design which was run with the client’s historic production data. They proved the design met all our client’s requirements and helped us optimise and removed significant costs. The client loved the model demonstration and subsequent what-if games”.
Andy Aitken, Project Engineer Allied Protek
You can find a copy of the case study here: Case Study
You can watch the video case study here: Video Case Study
Or if you prefer more technical details you can read this article : Technical Article
How do I get started?
Want to learn more? Take a look at our Simulation for Factory Design page. If you think simulation could help your design project, then get in touch and we’ll arrange a video call to help you get started. You can call me on 07305 070155 or email me at [email protected]