No training wheels required

A small bicycle manufacturer redesigning its manufacturing system to cope better with high-variety, customized production and a large automotive company iteratively designing large, complex flow lines. These are the examples, which show that how simulation supported manufacturing system design process. In both cases, the companies looked outside their organizations for technical expertise to conduct the simulations. Discrete event simulation was used model the detail of individual orders, machines, batches, and delivered products, giving results on lead time, work in process, output, and utilization. Discrete event simulation prompted evaluation of different manufacturing system design options to understand the role of factors such as downtime and quality were affecting the ability to meet demands. The manufacturing design teams used the data to understand the behavior of the production areas to make improvements and to build confidence in the design robustness.