FEATURE Industry 4.0 & Smart Factories y
Full model factory simulation
The Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) recently collaborated with Genlab to create a full model factory simulation. This smart factory simulation allowed Genlab to explore how different factory layouts and processes could be used to maximise efficiency. Here, the VEC’s Dr Andy Levers takes up the story and explains how the simulation increased productivity, improved assembly time and increased capacity
F
or over 50 years, Genlab has designed and manufactured industrial and laboratory ovens, incubators, drying cabinets, water baths and other associated thermal products. The company has three divisions providing
a product range noted for its quality, reliability and performance. It has supplied products to almost every country in the world and has many longstanding employees whose combined technical knowledge has helped make it one of the leading businesses in thermal engineering. Genlab recognised the opportunity of
employing a variety of new technologies within the business but did not have the capacity or the specialist knowledge to explore how new tools could support a push toward greater efficiency and new innovation. It wanted to explore how the existing
factory layout and current processes could be optimised to improve efficiency and meet growing customer demand for its products, without compromising its handcrafted approach or having to make greater financial investments.
Partner support
Liverpool University’s Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) worked with Genlab to evaluate how the highly skilled but traditional approaches it currently employed could benefit from new digital technologies. Opportunities for innovation included the
use of the Industrial Internet of Things for preventative maintenance, exploring improved connectivity of products, and how the current factory layout and manufacturing process could be changed to improve productivity. The business produces highly customised products, with complex components and processes. The current processes are not highly automated and the challenge was to look for methods to empower a highly skilled workforce
16 June 2020 | Automation
with new information for rapid and better decision making. Working closely with Genlab, the VEC studied the existing floor plan and factory machine layout, evaluating process times at different workstations. Using this high level production data and layouts, the VEC created a full model factory simulation using specialist software, SIMIO. The results enabled Genlab to explore alternative layouts, helping them to understand which layout gained maximum efficiency.
Benefits
Using a virtual factory model allowed Genlab to complete this task without risk or interruption to daily operations, as well as allowing them to test a number of solutions quickly and easily. The factory simulation provided insight into optimum staffing levels and demonstrated how to better deploy staff to maximise throughput and predict the consequences of staffing shortages throughout weekly production. The simulation also confirmed that a change
in the position and layout of just the stores area could improve output by five per cent per annum. The simulation highlighted ways that Genlab could improve assembly time by 30 minutes, which resulted in an increase in capacity of 20 per cent without any additional investment in new tools or automation.
Working to the future
Genlab has identified a number of opportunities for change within its existing factory layout which allows them to remove any constraints and improve efficiency and productivity levels, offering easier access to machinery and improved communication. Based on the real time quality data now being collected, Genlab can improve the visibility of work in progress. This will allow it to optimise its operations with supply
chain partners, reducing lead times between the company and its customers. This approach paves the way for future innovation by highlighting how and where to collect further valuable data from, giving operational managers greater insight for improved production planning and future changes to processes, to increase productivity even further. Phil Crompton, finance director at Genlab comments: “Working with the VEC has introduced the company to a no-nonsense approach to adopting new digital tools as a means to improve productivity. “Factory simulation has brought into focus
and validated our ambitions to grow the business. We have explored new possibilities without the risk that normally comes with change management by using virtual tools, and identified the path to a 20 per cent increase in productivity using the factory simulation. “With the VEC’s support, Genlab is excited
to explore how Industrial IoT and virtual prototyping can further help us create a new generation of products and to better meet our automotive and industrial clients’ demand.”
CONTACT:
The Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC) Web:
www.virtualengineeringcentre.com
automationmagazine.co.uk
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