Plating plant - phyisical capacity software req'd

[vulpine9]

Hi All
We run 3 different electro-plating process where parts are suspended on 2 different jigs in 3 different size tanks.
We produced small batches but many, many different parts.
We currently use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate how many parts (they can vary from a few mm to around a metre in size with forms) will fit on a jig and therefore the run time per batch etc.
Does anyone know of a commercial software product that will do this as our spread sheet has some, er, qwerks! Around 20% of parts it estimates are way out.
If there isn't a commercial solution I will have to perfect the spreadsheet which may be weeks of work!
thanks
Jon

 

[tygerdawg]

Perhaps you may consider one of the "discrete simulation" packages out there on the market. Also called "decision analysis & support", "Monte Carlo simulators", etc., if you want to do a keyword search. These packages are used to simulate factory operations to give throughputs, production capacity, and do "what if" analyses to see if a particular design is better than the other or if a change in product schedule will improve things(e.g., if you use a new higher capacity jig or a two of the XYZ machines).

Some examples:
WITNESS

http://www.lanner.com

SIMUL8

http://www.simul8.com

I don't know what it is any more, but I have seen a 3rd party magazine website that did a comparison of all major packages on the market.


TygerDawg