Invest or Work Smarter?

A manufacturing company faced a 20% increase in demand but lacked the workforce and tools to meet it efficiently. With a high manual workload, complex task requirements, and uncertainty about investing in new facilities versus optimizing existing resources, the company needed a clear strategy for growth.

Challenge

Key challenges included:

• High manual workload, combined with complex working rule constraints and diverse task requirements for different products. Operators had to frequently switch between tasks, requiring careful coordination to maintain high efficiency.
• Uncertainty about whether to invest in new facilities or optimize existing resources.
• Limited experience in using discrete event simulation for decision support.

Solution

The company engaged Evoma AB to provide decision support for their project using FACTS Analyzer’s* scheduling and optimization capabilities. This enabled them to:

• Optimize work orders, shift schedules, and staffing levels for improved efficiency.
• Generate Gantt charts to visualize production flow and resource allocation.
• Create reports of KPI impact optimizing existing operations vs investment in new facilities.

Results

• Optimized workforce scheduling, improving efficiency.
• Data-driven decision support, helping the company determine whether investment was necessary.
• Increased operational efficiency, enabling them to meet demand without immediate capital investment.

Conclusion

By leveraging Evoma’s consultancy services, the company avoided unnecessary investments and instead maximized the efficiency of its existing workforce and production capacity. This data-driven approach provided a clear roadmap for optimizing production processes while ensuring flexibility for future growth.

*FACTS Analyzer was the previous generation of inFACTS Studio, built on a 2D environment.