Case studies

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.

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.

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.

Today, many steel manufacturers are in need of lean manufacturing tools that will improve their return on investment and service levels. The minimum 80% reliability level most steel companies are struggling to achieve is nowhere near what today’s customers and investors want to deal with. One of the largest and oldest European steel manufacturers came across these problems and was desperately trying to solve them. The company called upon the assistance of Goldratt Research Labs.

Perfection Pet Foods is a US manufacturer of extruded pet food, with a focus on ultra-premium products for dogs and cats. For three consecutive years, demand for the company’s products increased annually by approximately 35%, while demand profiles changed as people switched their preferences from big dogs to smaller ones. This was the reason the company decided to optimize their production line and adjust it to the current demand.

The model simulates the redesigned ground environment and production processes of the shop floor to be renovated. This is one of the significant examples of simulation modeling technology application in the metallurgical industry.

With AnyLogic simulation software as the centerpiece, NASSCO utilizes a custom-built analysis system called the Large Scale Computer Simulation Modeling System for Shipbuilding (LSMSe) to provide highly detailed and accurate capacity analyses for both current production and potential new work.

The managers of one of the most important Italian yacht manufacturers needed a new, intelligent approach that would make the planning process simpler. The objective was to give the real production planner exceptionally rich planning information, which would allow the person to test and refine a plan before its implementation.

Manufacturing and economic conditions are so complicated and unstable that it makes traditional scheduling methods ineffective. A major Eastern European steel pipe manufacturing plant decided to improve production planning using simulation software. In addition, the company wanted to minimize gaps and daily fluctuations of the orders handover, identify bottlenecks, and improve order routes.