MoreCost avoidance is an important function of simulation in strategic planning. One of GM's cereal plants wanted to replace some low-speed packaging lines with multiple-head, higher-speed lines. Simulation showed that a bottleneck downstream would hold the new, high-speed lines to only a three percent improvement in productivity -- not enough to justify new equipment. Instead, it led plant operations to restructure the packing lines that ultimately increased plant capacity.
Witness software also saved GM $500,000 by not building an unneeded loading bay. The plant was planning a new loading facility with three bays for automatic transfer of product from silos to trucks and rail cars. This combined continuous-discrete process simulation was the first time the interaction and balance between production and truck schedules/loading duration were clearly understood, according to Beaverstock. Simulation showed that two bays would adequately handle the load, saving the company the cost of building the third bay.
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The Food Defense Strategy Exchange (FDSE) is a forum for food defense professionals to interact and share their knowledge and experiences. At the most recent FDSE, a poll of attendees revealed that approximately two-thirds were either re-evaluating their existing food defense plan, or implementing new food defense plans. In this podcast, Don Hsieh, Director of Commercial and Industrial Marketing at Tyco Integrated Security, discusses this topic and other findings from the exchange, and offers some best practices to proactively protect a company’s brand from food adulteration.
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