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   Establish Home > Simulation Services

 



 
  "In addition to designing and implementing business processes and systems, we offer expertise in simulating major, complex logistics, information, and process flows. We often use computerized simulation tools to analyze and assess the likely outcomes of change. Moreover, graphic animation in the models can help in visualizing complex contexts and in communicating ideas and potential results. "  
 

Simulation Services

Simulation tools allow us to provide our clients with first-class information for decision-making based on simulating and calculating decisions on the strategic, tactical and operational levels within eBusiness, logistics, production and service. Bottlenecks and other impediments and inefficiencies can, therefore, be eliminated in the early stages of a design. By running multiple scenarios, the design can be fine-tuned, resulting in more competitive eBusiness solutions.

  Why Simulation?

Many complex questions arise when an organization faces an investment decision or a change in its business activities:
  • How will revenue and profits be impacted?
  • What effect will this have on operations and staffing?
  • What additional investments will we have to make and how large will they be?
  • What is the return on investment?
    • Often, these questions remain unanswered until the change has been implemented. By then it is significantly more costly to correct any wrong decisions. Simulation provides the opportunity to test, change, and develop your ideas with computer models, rather than using trial and error in the real process. With the help of simulation, Establish can give you insight into the results of process changes before the change has actually been implemented, allowing you to avoid costly mistakes.

    Some of the benefits of simulation are that it gives you full overview and control of the design of your process before you start building or changing it. This allows you to save time and money and to make sure that your solution works!

    Who needs simulation? Any organization with a system or process that wants to:
  • Increase capacity and productivity.
  • Quantify the impact of changes in equipment, schedules, operating strategies, etc.
  • Evaluate operating strategies and capacity requirements in the design stage.
    • Establish has the simulation expertise needed. Simulation projects conducted for clients include the following industries:
  • Manufacturing
  • Retail
  • Distribution
  • Airline
  • Airports
  • Healthcare
  • Public Transportation
  • Mail and Parcel Service
    •  

    Project Outlines
     
     

    Airline

    An airline wanted to determine the affects of changing crew-scheduling practices on operations. The scenarios evaluated included having cabin and flight crews stay with aircraft instead of splitting up at each leg. We developed a model of a sub-fleet of the airline and tested various planning scenarios and how they affected punctuality. The model was fed with real delay statistics on leg and station level, as well as other delays affecting flight time between stations. By alternating between simulation and optimization, a number of different scenarios were compared and evaluated.

    		 

    Airport

    The authorities of a major airport engaged Establish to help produce specifications for a new airport. They wanted to make sure that the airport could support forecasted passenger and flight volumes. Establish built simulation models of the flow-intensive areas in the airport, including security, baggage handling, and terminal capacity. The simulation aided the design process and allowed determination of optimum capacities for the areas of the airport that were simulated.

     
     

    Distribution

    A large retailer engaged Establish to help design a strategy for filling Internet orders. Formerly, the strategy had been to pick orders on an aggregated level and ship them to local outlets for sorting and distribution to customers. As the volume of Internet orders increased, it became evident that more cost-effective methods which would provide better customer service were required, but would require re-vamping distribution center operations. The company developed a number of strategies internally, but had no way of evaluating which represented the best solution. We simulated the operations of the distribution center to find cost and service levels for each strategy. We identified the best basic concept and fine-tuned some of the design and operating procedures using the simulation model. The model is still used by the retailer to verify the effects of moving or replacing material handling equipment and for determining the impact of additional volume and scheduling changes.

    		 

    Healthcare

    A regional hospital wanted to enhance the supply chain in the surgical department with the objective of lowering costs without compromising quality. Scenarios were constructed with management input and each run was analyzed to compare it with current operations. Some of the scenarios utilized a separate surgical team for emergency cases, varying size of surgical teams, increased scheduling of outpatient procedures during periods of under-utilization, and start-time synchronization. The changes implemented as a result of the simulation are expected to lower the incidence of cancelled operations and save the hospital between $100,000 and $200,000 annually.

     



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      We are management consultants specializing in logistics and supply chain strategy. We help all kinds of companies build and revise business processes that deliver products and services in the right place and at the right time.

    		 
     
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