Virtual Factory / Simulation Software 2

[leanIE]

I'd really like to hear any advice concerning factory simulation or virtual factory type software. Any input concerning good or bad experiences is welcomed. Thanks in advance.

 

[tygerdawg]

I started using it wa-a-a-ay back in grad school in '85, then used it successfully in manufacturing companies. I've even thought it would be a great thing to do consulting with. Tried it, failed miserably at it because none of the clients who needed it the most understooad what it is and how it can help them.

I'm not an IE (just a dumb gearhead ME/MfgE), so I take a less rigorous and less anal-retentive approach to simulation studies than my IE colleagues. However, when I published my method in a tech paper I got invited all over the place to present it at conferences, so I must have done something half-right. Too bad it never turned into $$.

I use simulation as a tool for factory optimizations, designing new layouts, and decision support ("THIS machine versus THAT process?"). I recently thought about getting back into the game and was pleasantly surprised to see that the price of these tools have come down to reasonable levels. For example, SIMUL8 goes for $4K, downloadable, and...and..um, forget...60 day money back gurantee? 90 day? Something astounding like that. I think I saw that ProModel is still $16K or thereabouts.

Simulation packages are modelling tools that require you to develop models that mimic the real or anticipated behavior of the factory system as close as possible. It takes a lot of cleverness sometimes to do use the programming conventions available to model the system or cleverness to explain why your results are acceptable anyway. And of course it's all Garbage In Garbage Out. I'm not an expert, but I think that the science behind Monte Carlo simulations is pretty well figured out, it's just the depth of modelling tools that make the difference between the different packages.

Maybe you can be more specific in what questions you want? Also you can check out Operations Research/Management Science magazine

http://www.lionhrtpub.com/orms/surveys/Simulation/Simulation.html

They publish a comparison of most all of the simulation packages sold on the market.

TygerDawg