For Immediate Release posted on October 31, 2012
Sewickley, Pa. – 31 October 2012: Simio LLC announces the invention of software that captures undocumented process variation know-how residing in the minds of master schedulers. According to Dr. Dennis Pegden, Simio chief executive officer and inventor “the role that variation plays in creating congestion and delays in manufacturing is well documented in the literature, but is typically ignored by software used in the day-to-day planning and scheduling of production.” Instead, the master scheduler applies years of know-how to manually produce a good schedule.
A problem surfaces upon retirement of the master scheduler because this plant floor know-how retires with him.
To solve this problem, Simio invented risk-based planning and scheduling (RPS), the next generation of detail production scheduling software. RPS captures in a simulation model, the master scheduler’s know-how related to process variation and complexity and uncertainty. This gives the succession scheduling team new capability to help predict the probability of meeting each order, similar to the judgment delivered each day by the retiring master scheduler.
Manufacturers also face the challenge that their operations are complex while having to apply a wide variety of rules that make it virtually impossible to create a spreadsheet, algorithm, or optimization to schedule the facility. As such, management finds it difficult to have confidence in any software solution claiming to predict on-time delivery and cost performance. However, according to Pegden, “you can use a simulation modeling tool like risk-based planning and scheduling (RPS) to capture these complex process rules and variability now held in the heads of master schedulers.” Simulation offers users a detail production schedule in minutes while capturing much of the retiring master scheduler’s know-how.
Simio is simulation software for improving the financial performance of manufacturing operations by reducing contract penalties, meeting customer commitments and objectively analyzing cash requirements for capacity.
About Simio LLC
Simio LLC is a private company headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and is dedicated to delivering leading edge solutions for the design, emulation, and scheduling of complex systems.