Watch this presentation from the 2017 E Source Forum Conference given by Huntsville Utilities on how they rebuilt customer relationships and prioritized customer experience (CX). ProModel played a role in this turnaround as mentioned starting at the 6:40 mark.
Speaking of Huntsville Alabama – We will be at the annual AUSA Global Force Symposium and Expo at the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, AL Mar 26-28. Stop by ProModel booth #200 and check out our latest products and releases.
CHALLENGES
An American food manufacturing facility was looking to buy a new palletizer for their packaging/palletizing floor. The manufacturing group needed to perform a capacity analysis of the 13 existing palletizers in the facility which supported 29 production lines. The company was facing challenges keeping up with consumer demand for their popular products. ProModel was brought in to build a pilot model of the packaging and palletizing floor.
OBJECTIVES
The first set of objectives were to analyze and understand the following elements of the current operations:
The next set of objectives involved analyzing the impact of different changes to the system:
SOLUTION
A ProModel consultant and the company’s personnel worked together to build a pilot model. Packing lines to conveyors to palletizers are represented in the simulation model shown below.
The diagram does not reflect the actual conveyor layouts, but by using data provided by the company, actual conveyor speeds and distances were taken into consideration. The conveyors and palletizers being considered for future expansion were also included in the model.
More changes to the system can be analyzed since the simulation model is extremely customizable. For example, as additional downtime information is collected, the model can be dialed in to better reflect actual operations. The model allows for other process changes over time too like cycle times, introduction of new cases and new palletizers.
As a result of the success of the pilot model, this company and ProModel will be working together to model another palletizing floor of the facility. The one change that the client requested is that actual conveyor layouts be reflected in this second model to better illustrate how they impact production flow.
VALUE PROVIDED
The company has a model of each palletizing floor. These models can be connected and the organization can test and evaluate changes and expansions to the entire palletizing portion of their facility to guarantee that variations and increases in consumer demand will be met.
Keith Knudsen ProModel Project Manager
Over the past 29 years, ProModel users across a spectrum of industries have demonstrated the value that modeling can bring to an organization. Just a few examples include:
Increasingly, however, ProModel customers are looking to extend these benefits by integrating their models with other IT systems to develop web-based decision support tools. These model-based tools utilize a ProModel engine on a server, read in live data and utilize ProModel simulation and optimization capabilities to provide forecasting, automated scenario exploration and prescriptive suggestions.
Whether created by ProModel consultants or in-house analysts, a good model (traditional or integrated) is composed of several key elements as shown below.
Custom integrated model(s) take all of the above, integrate it with live data and makes its power available in a live, web-based format so that tactical decision-makers at all levels of the organization can utilize it. In a live integrated environment, prescriptive analytics can be provided daily or even hourly in support of near real-time decision-making.
ProModel has now developed about half a dozen custom predictive prescriptive platforms with direct integration of the ProModel server into the customer’s operational IT environment. Examples include:
AREAS capacity planning capability was featured in the Signal Magazine on page 2. The article states that Ingalls Shipbuilding estimated a potential annual cost savings of just under $1M from the use of this tool.
Benefits of a custom integration of ProModel include:
Contact saleshelp@promodel.com if you are interested in learning more about custom model integration.
Steve Courtney, ProModel Sr. Consultant
I have several years of experience in supply chain and logistics modeling helping clients who have large warehouses and distribution centers. These models are often very large (thousands or tens of thousands of locations), which can be very time consuming to model. I’ve found the old adage to be very true: “Necessity is the Mother of Invention”, so I developed a ProModel App that is used from within AutoCAD which enables us to quickly build the graphical portions of the model using OLE automation. This capability is also very useful when experimenting with several different layouts.
The types of Warehouse / DC modeling questions that can be answered include:
I recently gave a webinar on this topic which you can view here
The requirements for using the app include:
If you would like to discuss this further, or have other ideas that can help us all improve warehouse and distribution center modeling, please comment below. Thanks and Happy Modeling!
Thanks, Steve Courtney
CHALLENGES
A leader in the design, manufacture, and supply of oilfield equipment had recently purchased land to build a world class manufacturing facility. The new location would be designed to capture future growth but needed to be sized correctly; not a wasteful over-construction yet not too small at the same time.
The senior executive team thought simulation modeling would allow them to analyze their manufacturing processes, identify bottlenecks, capture productivity improvements, and properly size the new facility. After a lengthy vendor sourcing exercise, ProModel Corporation was selected as the best provider to answer this modeling challenge.
OBJECTIVES
VALUE PROVIDED
SOLUTION
A ProModel senior consultant worked with the engineering staff to build dynamic models of their current production facility and planned future construction.
First, a dynamic flexible model of the existing facility was created and validated. That model was used to define the true capacity of the existing facility, analyze current constraints, evaluate capital improvement options, and test new LEAN concepts that were under consideration for the current and future facility.
A major challenge to creating the model was accommodating the tremendous variety of products manufactured. A user friendly interface for running the model was developed to provide the ability to run any variation of mix/demand against several operational configurations.
The key learnings from the existing facility model were then applied to the new facility design. Alternate facility layouts and new material handling concepts were evaluated to ensure the plant of the future would meet all capacity targets.
3D Animation of a Portion of the Plant
In my eight years at ProModel, I have come to appreciate the serious talent of our consultants. I think they are one of our greatest assets and bring tremendous value to our customers. When I really want to get the scoop on a project, I turn to one of them and they explain the very complex nature of our projects to me in a way I understand and appreciate. One of these talented consultants is Dale Schroyer.
Dale is a first time grandfather, which in itself is a new challenge. As he said “Its old, but its new. In his work as a Promodel Consultant Dale travels a great deal, however he does not really get to see or enjoy the places to which he travels. So he and his wife have decided to start traveling and just this year they took their first vacation to Italy and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Next on their bucket list is another trip. They are deciding between Alaska or the British Isles.
When I last spoke with Dale he was attending the NPSF Patient Safety Congress, in Scottsdale, Arizona one of those may places he visits but doesn’t really get to see. He was happy to be in 80-degree sunshine after weeks in cool, cloudy Massachusetts. One of the programs Dale attended at the NPSF conference was an emersion workshop on RCA or Root Cause Analysis.
This program looked at what hospitals do when an adverse event occurs. Usually such events occur because of system faults or failures, not necessarily human error. The challenge is determining what the faults in the system are, how they can be fixed and instituting actions to fix them and measure those fixes. Dale found it a fascinating topic because of its similarities to what is done in the Aerospace industry in which he started his career. The instructors were Dr. James P. Bagian and Mr. Joseph M. DeRosier, one of whom is from the Aerospace industry. Both teach at the University of Michigan which is Dale’s alma mater. Dale spoke with them about simulation as a tool to determine hospital system shortfalls. They mentioned that the barriers to simulation are many and often the learning curve is long and cumbersome. Dale discussed using ProModel’s Process Simulator which can be an easier way around those barriers, since it is a simpler, Visio based tool.
As most of the attendees at the conference were nurses, doctors and an eclectic mix of engineers, what Dale observed in talking and listening to many of them is that healthcare does not consider itself a process or system industry. At this year’s conference, conversations were being started around this very issue. The fact that doctors and nurses were having the conversation is a considerable step in the right direction. Many in attendance wanted to know what techniques would best serve them in convincing their coworkers back home that the system approach is a good and necessary one for the healthcare industry that can benefit patients, hospitals, nurses and physicians.
Dale has over 20 years as an improvement consultant in the healthcare field at ProModel and Baystates Healthcare. One of his most significant consulting engagements for ProModel has been at Robert Wood Johnson. In this multi-year engagement, ProModel and Dale served as a trusted advisor. It was a project that did not just cover one unit of the hospital, but dealt with the whole evolution of the OR Suite. It was not just the building of a single model, but a collaborative work with positive and rewarding results.
Part of what makes Dales so good at his job is the fact that he loves tackling new challenges. Working for ProModel guarantees that each day will be very different from the last. He will meet new people in a new environment and tackle a new problem. The first step he generally takes when starting a new project is to spend a lot of time listening to those with whom he will be working. He needs to understand their environment and what he must do as a ProModel expert to yield them tremendous value.
Dale just earned a Data Scientist certification. The program he completed was from Johns Hopkins and required the completion of 9 courses along with a capstone project. His capstone focused on natural language processing and it brought all of the elements of the other 9 courses together and applied them in a new and fascinating way.
As Dale and I closed our conversation, we were both wondering how others in the Healthcare Community felt about his notion that Healthcare is not a process or system industry. We, of course, disagree. What do you think?
We would be happy to hear your opinion about this notion. Comment below or email me at ezohil@promodel.com. To recommend whether Dales should visit Alaska or the British Isles, email him at dschroyer@promodel.com.
Interested in learning more about ProModel consulting, check out: http://www.promodel.com/Services/Consulting, or consulting@promodel.com.
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