Making better decisions using simulation models in logistics and factory planning

Imag­ine being able to test your future logis­tics facil­i­ty before it’s even built. In a sim­u­la­tion mod­el, your sys­tem isn’t just visu­alised – it’s brought to life. Pal­lets are moved, con­tain­ers are filled and orders are processed – just as you would see hap­pen­ing in your own oper­a­tions.  

Fac­to­ry sim­u­la­tion and logis­tics sim­u­la­tion make it pos­si­ble to vir­tu­al­ly analyse com­plex process­es at an ear­ly stage, iden­ti­fy risks and make informed deci­sions – long before the first piece of equip­ment is ordered. At a time of increas­ing demands for effi­cien­cy, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and flex­i­bil­i­ty, sim­u­la­tion-based plan­ning thus becomes a valu­able deci­sion-mak­ing tool for all those involved in the project.

High levels of complexity in logistics planning

Many logis­ti­cal issues involve com­plex inter­re­la­tion­ships that can only be resolved by tak­ing the entire sys­tem into account:

• Which key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors are being met? (e.g. lead time, stock lev­els, on-time deliv­ery, etc.)
• Will the planned resources be suf­fi­cient giv­en the fluc­tu­at­ing capac­i­ty util­i­sa­tion?
• How does the sys­tem behave when sub­ject­ed to dis­tur­bances? (e.g. in the event of an over­load or a loss of capac­i­ty)
• Where might poten­tial bot­tle­necks arise that could end up cost­ing time and mon­ey lat­er on?

This enables ear­ly deci­sions to be made on the basis of clear­ly struc­tured, com­pa­ra­ble con­cepts.

Simulation models provide predictability

In tra­di­tion­al plan­ning, many deci­sions are made on the basis of assump­tions: process met­rics are cal­cu­lat­ed, floor areas are derived and work­flows are defined. In an envi­ron­ment char­ac­terised by com­plex, ful­ly auto­mat­ed intral­o­gis­tics, the lim­i­ta­tions of a sta­t­ic approach are quick­ly reached. The com­bi­na­tion of assump­tions and high com­plex­i­ty leads to uncer­tain­ty.

Logis­tics sim­u­la­tion pro­vides a solu­tion here. It dig­i­tal­ly repli­cates real-world logis­tics process­es. Prod­ucts, facil­i­ties, staff and means of trans­port are mod­elled as dynam­ic ele­ments and linked togeth­er via mate­r­i­al flows. This cre­ates a vir­tu­al rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the planned sys­tem, with the aim of enabling bet­ter and more reli­able deci­sions to be made.

Sim­u­la­tion of goods receipt and ware­house oper­a­tions with inte­gra­tion into pro­duc­tion

The causes of process disruptions become apparent as early as the planning phase

Unlike sta­t­ic cal­cu­la­tions or lay­outs, sim­u­la­tions show not only what hap­pens, but also when and why. This pro­vides trans­paren­cy regard­ing per­for­mance, space require­ments and invest­ment risks – par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ear­ly stages of a project, when deci­sions set the course for the entire project.

The results:

• a sound basis for deci­sion-mak­ing
• a low­er lev­el of project risk
• and the abil­i­ty to com­pare dif­fer­ent options objec­tive­ly

At SOLTIC, we rely on dynam­ic sim­u­la­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly for large-scale invest­ment projects involv­ing pro­duc­tion sites or logis­tics cen­tres. This enables you to com­pare dif­fer­ent options objec­tive­ly and make deci­sions based on reli­able key per­for­mance indi­ca­tors.

Typical areas of application in practice

Sim­u­la­tion mod­els are ver­sa­tile and pro­vide valu­able insights at every stage of project devel­op­ment. Typ­i­cal appli­ca­tions include:

Logis­tics Plan­ning

• A com­par­i­son of stor­age sys­tems and their impact on access times
• Test­ing dif­fer­ent Pick­ing strate­gies
• Test­ing the per­for­mance of inter­linked sys­tems

Pro­duc­tion plan­ning

• Analy­sis of mate­r­i­al pro­vi­sion
• Analy­sis of line util­i­sa­tion and cycle times
• Com­par­i­son of dif­fer­ent lay­er mod­els

Dig­i­tal twin in oper­a­tion

• Link­ing real-time data to dri­ve con­tin­u­ous improve­ment in ongo­ing process­es

A clear process – from the initial idea to the decision paper

The added val­ue of a fac­to­ry or logis­tics sim­u­la­tion depends cru­cial­ly on all project stake­hold­ers being con­vinced of the accu­ra­cy of the sim­u­la­tion results. The cre­ation of a sim­u­la­tion fol­lows a method­i­cal approach that ensures the results are trans­par­ent and robust. When work­ing with SOLTIC, val­i­da­tion and ver­i­fi­ca­tion there­fore begin with a joint clar­i­fi­ca­tion of the tasks (scope of analy­sis, lev­el of detail, test sce­nar­ios) and con­clude with a joint inter­pre­ta­tion of the results.

1. Def­i­n­i­tion of objec­tives
   In con­sul­ta­tion with the project stake­hold­ers, we deter­mine which ques­tions need to be answered – such as through­put, space require­ments or cycle times.
2. Data col­lec­tion and mod­el devel­op­ment
   Rel­e­vant process data, lay­outs and per­for­mance para­me­ters are con­sol­i­dat­ed and incor­po­rat­ed into a vir­tu­al mod­el.
3. Sce­nario devel­op­ment
   Dif­fer­ent vari­ants – such as alter­na­tive lay­outs, shift mod­els or tech­ni­cal solu­tions – are mod­elled and com­pared with one anoth­er.
4. Sim­u­la­tion and eval­u­a­tion
   The mod­el is test­ed under real­is­tic con­di­tions. This yields key fig­ures such as capac­i­ty util­i­sa­tion, wait­ing times and mate­r­i­al flow vol­umes.
5. Visu­al­i­sa­tion and Com­mu­ni­ca­tion
   The results are pre­sent­ed in the form of ani­ma­tions, videos or dash­boards and serve as a trans­par­ent basis for deci­sion-mak­ing for the client and the design team.
6. Rec­om­men­da­tion and inte­gra­tion
   The find­ings will be incor­po­rat­ed into fur­ther plan­ning and can be used in BIM– or dig­i­tal twin sys­tems can be inte­grat­ed.

Simulation of operational scenarios: the digital twin

As indus­try becomes increas­ing­ly dig­i­talised, the bound­aries between plan­ning and oper­a­tions are becom­ing increas­ing­ly blurred. Sim­u­la­tions form the basis for what is known as the ‘dig­i­tal twin’, which is con­tin­u­ous­ly fed with data from oper­a­tions.

This makes it pos­si­ble to assess future oper­a­tional sce­nar­ios or eval­u­ate opti­mi­sa­tion strate­gies direct­ly. For the client, this means that invest­ments remain flex­i­ble and future-proof in the long term.

Sim­u­la­tion mod­el with KPIs

Virtual planning with real-world results at SOLTIC

Would you like to test your plans vir­tu­al­ly and save time and mon­ey whilst gain­ing greater cer­tain­ty dur­ing imple­men­ta­tion? SOLTIC is your expert part­ner in the field of fac­to­ry and logis­tics sim­u­la­tion. We would be delight­ed to put our expe­ri­ence, sys­tem knowl­edge and exper­tise in plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion to work for your com­pa­ny too. Find out more about our ser­vices in the field of dynam­ic sim­u­la­tion.

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