Operations
The plan of the day, ready before the early shift.
Each morning the model reads the floor, forecasts the week, picks the cheapest plan that delivers and sends two reports.Every morning the model reads the floor as it stands, forecasts the week, finds the cheapest plan that still delivers and sends two reports. All of it is built on shifts, holidays and people modelled as they really are.
Daily questions are usually settled by experience or whoever argues hardest. A model that runs each morning has the answer before anyone asks.Strategic questions get asked once a year. Operational ones get asked every day, and are usually settled by experience, precedent or whoever argues hardest, because there has never been time to work them out properly. A model that runs by itself each morning has the answer ready before anyone asks.
It starts from the floor as it stands
No empty start: the run begins with what your systems say this morning, and keeps it, so the forecast can later be checked.A simulation usually starts empty and needs time to fill up. This one starts from what your systems say this morning: the parts waiting and in progress, a machine that is down, the stock and the open orders. What was read is kept, so the same morning can be run again and its forecast held against what then happened.
A forecast, and the cheapest plan that still delivers
The model forecasts the week, then picks the cheapest plan that meets your delivery target with the levers you allow; if none can, it shows the closest.From that morning's floor, the model forecasts what will be ordered and what will ship. Then it tries the levers you allow (a roster, a queue rule, a service date, extra cover) and picks the cheapest plan that still meets your delivery target, said in plain words. When no plan can keep that promise, it says so, and shows the closest.
Two reports, to the people they are for
One report for those who run the models, one for those who decide. If a step they rely on fails, the morning stops: no report from old data.One report for the people who run the models, one for the people who decide, each printed to PDF in its reader's language and mailed with a link to the dashboard. Every step of the morning is written down, and when a step the reports depend on fails, the morning stops there: a report is never made from data that was not read that day.
- Started by the computer's own scheduler, at the time you set
- A failed step is mailed to the simulation leads at once, with the end of the log
What the plan rests on
Shifts as the week they actually are
Shifts are modelled as worked: breaks, a short Friday, nights across midnight. Holidays and a shutdown are written once for the whole year.A shift pattern is rarely one start and end time. Crews work a short Friday and take two breaks; a shift of nine hours with lunch is one shift, not two; a night shift crosses midnight. And a year is not 52 normal weeks: public holidays, a shutdown and the half day before it are each written once.
- Simple patterns, or a timetable drawn on a week grid
- Work does not start outside the pattern; work already started finishes, and those minutes count as overtime
People, not just a headcount
A pool can list its people, each with roster, leave, training and a chance of falling ill. Results carry an id, never a name.A pool can say who is in it: each person with their own roster, planned leave and training, and a chance of falling ill. So the week the only inspector is on a course is modelled as that week. People are pseudonymous: the results carry an id, never a name.
- Utilisation against rostered hours, with overtime reported separately
- Who a worker serves next, set by priority rules you can compare
- How many people the line actually needs, searched rather than estimated
m01
machinists
m02
machinists
m03
machinists
i01
inspectors
Away is its own share of the clock, so leave never counts as a breakdown or as idle time.Away is its own share of the clock (busy + down + maintenance + absent + idle + outside shifts = capacity × hours), so somebody on leave is never mistaken for a breakdown, or for idle time.
Movement that takes the time it takes
Material does not teleport: tracks have real length, vehicles are busy there and back, so moving two machines closer changes the answer.Material does not teleport. A track has a real length and speed, a vehicle is busy for the whole trip including the run back empty, and on a track with a single lane one direction waits for the other. So moving two machines closer together, a shorter track, changes the answer.
- Distance per product and per vehicle, loaded and empty
- Conveyors that accumulate and block what is behind them when full
The same model, next
What operations learns becomes the new current status, and the cycle starts again.
Simulation
Build a working model of your operation and run it as the real thing.
Planning
Strategy, investment cases and letting the software search for the best configuration.
Analysis
Product passport, weighing the options, proposed actions and reports both audiences can read.
Energy
Every hour priced on its own, the grid's CO₂ by the hour, and your own solar and wind.
Sustainability
Emissions, energy, water and material, answered in the same run as cost.
Which question keeps coming back?
Most operations have one that resurfaces every few weeks and never gets settled. Tell us yours and we will show you what settling it would look like.
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