Manufacturing and supply chain simulation, 35 years deep.
We build custom simulation models and decision apps for lines, plants, warehouses and supply chains, so you can see what a change would do before you make it.
Trusted by 300+ organizations since the early 1990s
We don't sell software
We pick the tool that fits the question, or build the tool in house.
Some problems need a fast, rate-based model of a 1,200-bottle-a-minute line. Others need 3D animation that a plant team can walk through, or an optimizer wrapped in an app a planner runs every Monday. We have built all of these.
Five ways we work with manufacturers
Most projects start as a model and some become apps. You can start at whichever step fits.
- Simulation consulting
Models of lines, plants, warehouses and supply chains, built to answer one decision: buffers, line speeds, staffing, capacity, inventory.
- Custom applications
The model, wrapped in an app your planners, analysts and executives run themselves, in the language of their job.
- Simulation libraries
Tested equipment blocks your modelers reuse in ExtendSim, Plant Simulation or other tools, built and kept current by us.
- Innovation
Test a new analytics idea on your own stack, drop the dead ends early, and turn the winners into production software.
- Edge & IIoT
Apps on Siemens Industrial Edge that read the line in real time and coach operators while the shift is running.
Work we can show you
Each one started with a question someone had to answer with real money on the line.
VINLogic: $21.7M saved in vehicle distribution
Forecasting a 2.5M-vehicle rail network: $21.7M saved and transit time cut 19%.
$21.7M inventory carrying costs saved
Robotic warehouse design: 94% productivity gain
Testing layouts and task rules for a robotic warehouse before it was built.
94% productivity improvement
Olive plant capacity: 15% more throughput
Finding the real bottlenecks in an olive plant, and 15% more throughput from scheduling.
15% throughput improvementUnder NDA
Work we can't show you
Some of our biggest work has no logo and no screenshots. One example is a production reliability platform that tells a global manufacturer what failed on a line, and why, so its plants recover faster.
It began as a tangle of Excel macros and workbooks. We replaced it with a desktop application, then, at the client's request, rebuilt it as a web platform that now serves every plant in the company worldwide. After seven years we handed it to the client's IT team, which has grown to keep extending it.
What it delivered
- About 30% higher data-processing throughput
- Average query time cut by about 45%
- One web platform for every plant worldwide, with updates shipped to every site continuously
- Hundreds of millions of dollars saved in a single division, by the client's own estimate
The method for modeling high-speed lines started here.
A bottling line moving 1,000 containers a minute behaves like a flow of product. Andy Siprelle built bulk flow simulation in 1990 to model it that way, instead of tracking every container, and the idea later became discrete rate simulation, now in every major simulation package.
We have written about it at the Winter Simulation Conference since 1995, and we still use it on packaging, food and bulk-handling lines. Some of our people write books too.
Tell us your problem
What would happen if you changed it?
Describe the decision in front of you. We'll tell you whether a model can answer it, and what it would take.
- A straight answer on whether simulation is the right tool
- Which tool fits, even if it isn't one we use every day
- A rough scope and timeline, before any commitment