Case studies

Mid-term and operational planning in mining is an area where simulation has become a de-facto standard. Simulation copes well with the planning of mining operations: with its hundreds of interacting machines, overlapping maintenance activities, complex layouts of mine fields, and limited capacity of bunkers and conveyors.That is why the world’s leading mining companies frequently ask for integrated simulation-based tools, with user-friendly interfaces, to support their mid-term and day-to-day operations planning. This was the way the world’s 2^nd largest nickel producer followed.

Existing supply chain and S&OP tool sets do a great job of managing supply to meet a selected "forecast." However, there is no single "correct forecast" of future demand, and existing tools are not designed to select the best demand level for the business. There is a "tool gap" between forecast inputs and selection of the best demand signal (aka "forecast") to drive your S&OP system. Gojii is the tool created by DecisioTech that fills that gap.

The SET-Holding’s newly constructed foam concrete factory in the Oryol Region could not reach its designed capacity. The plant management blamed the poor performance on the human factor: the manufacturing technique was innovative and challenging for the factory employees. SET-Holding recruited consultants to analyze the situation and increase the production capacity. The consultants decided to build the factory’s simulation model using AnyLogic software.

One of the largest turbine manufacturers in the world had a very promising five-year portfolio of gas turbines to produce and was planning an optimistic 30% net margin. The company’s portfolio consisted of over 100 programs, made of 1000’s of projects, with each project composed of a number of phases. Relying on its good past performance, the company built their strategic competitive edge around their reliability, enabling them to offer penalties for late delivery and bonuses for early performance.

Eurystic, an Argentinian consulting company, worked on a project for a large steel manufacturer that was searching for production planning and scheduling software to optimize the production schedule and forecast the system's behavior.

Daltransugol coal terminal, located in the deep-water Muchka Bay, is the most important transshipment point on the way to the Asia-Pacific region. In order to increase its capacity to 40 million tons, Dilibrium conducted an in-depth analysis of all processes involved at the terminal using AnyLogic simulation.

NLMK Manage Steel Center is a strip steel service center in Manage, Belgium. MSC planned to implement a set of modernization activities to increase throughput by 1.5x at their facility. This case study shows how simulation modeling helped MSC to select optimal configurations for the facility and improve their productivity.

Accenture’s Applied Intelligence HSA team delivered an Order to Delivery (OTD) forecasting system for a US-based exercise equipment brand that was affected by COVID-19 related supply chain disruptions. The forecasting system, based on a supply chain digital twin, increased OTD forecasting accuracy by 57% and reduced costs by 20%. Read on and see how they tackled the project.

Managers and engineers responsible for mining operations regularly face many difficult tasks. They have to make decisions and commitments while working in a complex mining system, where no component is isolated. With the help of Amalgama and one of the Big Four consulting firms, the largest European potash producer simulated the mining process using AnyLogic. A big potash mine is 8 x 8 km in size. 900 thousand tons are mined per month on three underground levels. The mine has 21 km of conveyor belts taking the ore through the system to the skip hoist.

Conaprole, the biggest dairy production company in Uruguay, produces more than 150 SKUs in their ice cream plant, using five production lines, and up to five different packaging configurations for each line. The management’s challenge was to be able to reformulate their plans in order to balance supply and demand and make sure they would avoid stock-outs in key products. They also sought ways to optimize the use of their production capacities.