operational use

7/30/2019 Operational Use

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Sys tem

I n t e g r a t i o n

Supp ly

Chain

ProcessC on t r o l

Flow

Design

S imu la t i on

Serv ices

Value

Creat ion

Different areas to apply for Operational Support

I n t r oduc t i on Ob jec t i ve

Simulation has become more interesting tool for many companies in

developed/developing countries to use in different types of production systems

analysis. Additionally, simulation can be used for operational and not only in theplanning or designing phases. Recent advances in simulation software has allowed toexpand its usefulness beyond a purely design function into operational use. The

objective is to use the simulation software for the operational support used forscheduling, daily resource allocation, and process monitoring.

In manufacturing facility many possible ways to integrate the simulation servicesbetween different areas. Today many of the companies integrated with ERP systems,

warehouse management systems or at least real time database systems to maintainthe material flow. Thepower of simulation

software can be used

to connect with theexternal systems,which further utilized to

study the real system.

Of course it needssome integrationbetween these

systems. This is thebasic idea behind thiswork, how we can

implement this

methodology in order to solve many shop floor problems to quickly respond to thecustomers and also to compensate all the uncertainties and disturbances in thesystem. Another application of such a system, when implementing a model in

allocating resources in terms of people, machines and other resources at a


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terminal. Because the containers come from different places everyday, this will

create more problems and complicated if we dont know how to allocate them

properly. Simulating this layout can help to find different storage policies in terms ofspace and cost of operation. And also it will be easier to find the alternative resourceallocation procedures. In other terms the simulation tool is helping us to forecast the

model in operational use.

Sim u la t i on and i t s I m po r tance

We have the powerful simulation software available which can handle the specific

requirements in order to solve the complex systems for real time monitoring. Andadditional programming really performs to solve specialized computations such as

scheduling and many other possibilities to customize the model. Flexsim simulation

software is a windowbased applicationenvironment. The

basic powerfulness

comes from itsobject-oriented

technology. It has

built by using thecurrent technologiesand gives all the

power, flexibility and

interconnectivity oftodays tools. InFlexsim all

animation is OpenGLand boasts incrediblevirtual reality

animation. It has the possibility to show all the different views during the model

running phase. We can see the different areas where simulation can be used for realtime analysis. Beyond these different areas of applications, it is important to focus ona specific element to implement the solution. This simulation server has its own

database to integrate between different elements.

The goal of current work is to implement the features those are available in the

Flexsim Software to design the model to use it for an operational support in a real

time environment. The initial condition of the model is the data retrieved from theCompany information system usually MPS system. The data has to be retrieved andupdated into the simulation model based on the requirement. The objective of this

work will be designed to allocate the target-oriented teams, and also to study the

stability of the system by considering few cases.

(a) New orders into the system, which are not in the MPS system.

(b) Allocating target oriented teams based on the forecast(c) Continuous monitoring and sending alerts to the concerned department

The number of runs has to be performed for a particular set of data by changing

different parameters. Finally the model could be used to analyze the whole system inorder to incorporate value addition, financial and costing aspects as well as theexpansion of the model to include other parts of the production process.

DatabaseServer

Developmentof Supplier

Shop floorControl

ProcessControl

InventoryReduction

Material(Cost

Reduction


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Produc t ionSystem

ForecastedData

Sim u la t i onStudy

Var ious Depa r t m en t s

S imu la t i onServer

DatabaseServer

W eb

Server

METHOD Mo del Stu dy

The method is to connect the

Simulation model to the companyinformation system

(MPS system). If we can define

the manufacturing system as ablock diagram, in which there arethree main modules defined in the

diagram

A Simulation study module, in which the whole manufacturing system can bemodeled in terms of resources, processes, flow items etc.,

A Production system module is the manufacturing facility, where theproduction work involves.

A Forecasting module is the section where it analyzes the updated data fromthe simulation result as well as historical data to be compared to enhance the

production system.

The interaction between the Simulation module and the Production System module is

an important factor here. The Simulation model has to be updated as per the realsystem. This can be updated by connecting simulation model with the database of

the company information system. Based on the production schedule the timebetween the simulation runs can be maintained. And it is possible to check any time

by running the model at condensed time. The results from the simulation model can

be analyzed, but how this forecast information be presented?This would be possible by means of

sending the information to theconcerned departments before the

time. For this there are few possiblesolutions either sending to the web

browser to display the related

information (either image or tabularformat) or can make it as an

understandable form and send it tothe different departments.

The computer running with simulationis always contacted with the company

MPS system to update the information

about the material flow. Thesimulation server can be able to sendthe simulated information to the web

server or network server where thisserver has been connected to theother systems in the production

department. Nowadays many companies are doing resource allocation manually byestimating the present situation and deciding where to work and who should work

where? It also helps to support in analyzing the scheduling problems. We canincorporate the scheduling into the simulation model and see how the behavior of

the production system in order to make decisions. The effect on system stability and

resource allocation would give an overall cost reduction in a long run of the


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production. Many other internal disturbances can be studied and make an alert

before the production as well as while running the production. These alerts can be

sent directly to the concerned department. We can even test for an order that is notin the MPS system, whether we can able to deliver before the deadline or not? Atanother instance if few workers will be absent on a particular day within a week, we

dont know how this affects the system stability, these kinds of uncertainties can be

included into the Simulation model and tests can be made.

Resul ts and Benef i t s

The forecasted data can be used in allocating the target oriented teams and allpossible alerts in the production facility could be sent to their desktops using the

intranet where the people can make the quick decisions.

The real time monitoring is possible in all departments so that the adjustmentswould be made. In scheduling the work, the decisions can be easily taken in day byday production. It is advisable to use simulation software in operational use in order

to compensate the internal disturbances as well as uncertainty in demand.

The centralization can be achieved in terms of better overall visualization and verysimpler interfaces to enterprise systems which lead to E-manufacturing environment.

Flexsim is designed to support a seamlessly integrate simulation software in any

manufacturing company.We have an advantage that Flexsim uses Microsoft C++ compiler, so in addition itis possible to support all the latest distributed technologies providing by the

Microsoft. The real time operational use of simulation enables to continuously

improve their operations while realizing all cost parameters.Other benefits as a result from the simulation model as an operational use are:

Improved system planning and design Graphical display of simulation results Easy identification of causes of operational problems Under-utilization of resources can be easily identified Simulation alerts can be sent online to the departments Enhanced maintenance of operations at various levels

operational use

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