This has happened to us on several occasions. Once, this discovery led to a significant reduction in throughput time. The model assumed that a single cart was used to move work from a department having many parallel machines. When we found that each of the parallel machines had its own cart and made the appropriate change in the model, the cycle times matched. Later, we realized that the actual department could function with a single cart.
Process debugging can lead to big opportunities for improvement in the actual system.
The simulation model also pinpoints the changes that will make the most impact. Jerry Banks is a professor in the School of Industrial and Systems Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology and associate director for research at the Center for International Standards and Quality at Tech. Van Norman is president of AutoSimulations, Inc. in Bountiful, Utah. All rights reserved. Inc. All rights reserved.