Case Studies
Plastic Parts Manufacturing
Overview
 Manufacturing of plastic parts is often
a highly automated process involving state-of-the-art equipment.
Even the latest of these systems, however, must be managed by
a well-designed production plan to regulate workloads and avoid
waste. Several plastic parts manufacturers have satisfied this
requirement using SIMUL8-Planner Adaptive Planning and Scheduling
Systems.
The Challenge: Managing Diversity
Door and window frames are manufactured using energy-saving
polymer strips that are extruded through dies into distinct profiles.
The leading European manufacturer had recently expanded its product
lineup to over 40 molded parts, used to satisfy demand for several
thousand SKUs. This increase in product diversity created new
market opportunities, but it also created a problem: increased
scheduling complexity.
With tooling changes requiring several hours to complete, the
previous tendency was to prolong production runs (often for several
days) to minimize downtime. However this strategy resulted in
unmanageable levels of work-in-process and finished goods inventory
under the more diversified product mix. With such a large number
of SKUs to manage, manual scheduling of this operation had become
far too time-consuming and challenging.
Management sought an easy-to-use tool that would simplify schedule
generation and allow them to regularly review their forward inventory
position with respect to future production plans.
The SIMUL8-Planner Solution
Following a plant review and discussions with plant supervisors,
the key questions for the SIMUL8-Planner system to address were
identified:
- Given the current state of
the facility (accounting for line outages, labor availability,
etc.), how should line
production be scheduled to satisfy both short-term customer
orders and longer-term warehouse inventory requirements?
- When are tooling changes
required at each line based on the forecast of product demands?
- What inventory levels are
required by product line, and based upon specified product
volumes,
how much space is required over
a given period of time?
 To this end, a detailed SIMUL8-Planner
production model was developed to provide a dynamic view of
the flow of production
and product
orders across the plant and finished goods warehouse over
time. The model incorporated a spreadsheet and database
interface to capture the necessary input data, including product
demand
profiles,
production rates by line and by product, and changeover
times for line tooling change requirements. As opposed to a fully
automated input method, this approach was used to satisfy
the
requirement
for manual control of the tool while also accommodating
automated
data imports by acting as a secondary link to external
plant data.
Using SIMUL8-Planner’s
built-in sequencing algorithms, daily production orders could
be assigned
to the lines in a sequence
that would maximize throughput, minimize changeover requirements,
or minimize work-in-process. In the event of a line breakdown,
an updated production schedule could be quickly generated to
satisfy the selected objective under the new set of operating
conditions.
SIMUL8-Planner’s flexible and scalable
architecture allowed production plans involving dozens of
different parts and hundreds
of SKU orders to be generated with just a few mouse clicks.
Once the system had been installed, new part types and SKUs
could
be introduced without any further development effort.
In addition
to daily schedule generation at the shop-floor level, the
SIMUL8-Planner system can also
be used “offline” as
an analytical tool. For example, by adjusting input parameters
and analyzing performance reports, management can determine
the impact of future increases in product volume and product
range. In this way, the SIMUL8-Planner system is used by
this manufacturer to support both operational and strategic
planning.
The Benefits A SIMUL8-Planner Adaptive Planning and
Scheduling System satisfied management’s requirement for an easy-to-use tool that supports
both short-term and long-term planning. Customer orders are now
balanced with ongoing warehouse inventory replenishment; Tooling
changes are managed more efficiently; and work-in-process inventory
requirements have been dramatically reduced. The system’s
dual utility as a daily schedule generator and analytical tool
has provided the manufacturer with a tremendous return on investment.
Contact Us
Contact Visual8 Corporation at 1-800-878-3373 or info@visual8.com to find out how a SIMUL8-Planner Adaptive Planning and Scheduling
system can improve and control your production planning techniques.
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