Optimize Your DC's Performance with WES-enabled Simulation

Optimize Your DC's Performance with WES-enabled Simulation

It’s tough to keep up with today’s distribution and fulfillment (D&F) challenges. From exploding e-commerce and tighter customer standards to increasing consumer expectations and a need to increase productivity and throughput, operations face multiple challenges. While a variety of potential solutions exist — including facility expansions, new technologies and automation implementations — many fear making the wrong investment. To avoid making the incorrect decision, operations managers often defer changes while pushing current systems and equipment to their limits.

Alternatively, by adding a solution such as Honeywell Intelligrated’s eSim, an add-on module to our Momentum warehouse execution system (WES), an organization can mitigate these risks while bolstering overall performance. Operations that leverage in-house simulation and emulation solutions can optimize existing equipment and automated processes, validate new investments, and better adapt to changing business requirements.

Gaining Productivity With eSim

Simulation and emulation solutions like eSim allow an operation to test hundreds of possible scenarios quickly to determine the most efficient system designs and processes before investing in any equipment. In addition to improving performance, eSim reduces risk, cuts commissioning time, increases accuracy, minimizes delays, and maximizes efficiency.

eSim creates a digital replica of an operation’s existing automated material handling equipment (MHE) and software. With this virtual, end-to-end, integrated view of the distribution center (DC), an operation can test a broad variety of “what if” scenarios in-house, such as:

• The impact of peak season on equipment capacity and staffing needs
• The effect of changes in demand patterns and product mixes on storage capacity and throughput
• The ability of the operation to handle extra capacity through pressure testing of systems against a variety of volumes
• The results of different staffing levels per workflow, shift or process
• The effect of various disruptions and breakdowns, and their likelihood of occurring within a given time frame
• Implementing various types of equipment into an existing system to validate potential investment
• The result of a change in conveyor or sorter routing to overall product flow

It also permits changes to multiple parameters — including processes and equipment — allowing managers to see the outcomes prior to implementing modifications on the warehouse floor. eSim enables:

• Predictive analysis of systems and labor to detect problems before they cause bottlenecks
• Real-time, proactive monitoring of the entire operation’s functionalities, end to end, to detect problems before they lead to unanticipated downtime
• Digital visualization tools, dashboards and reporting capabilities that simplify the process of aligning stakeholders on proposed solutions while supporting future enhancements
• Virtual training for existing employees on new, upgraded, or modified processes and equipment
• Virtual training for new hires on a variety of activities — including picking, sorting, goods-to-person (GTP) station activities, quality control (QC) and more — prior to working on the floor

Cut Costs, Improve Training

eSim provides a clear understanding of how systems will work — and what quantifiable performance improvements they will deliver — before beginning any physical installation. Utilizing eSim’s emulation functions allows a new design to be refined in a virtual environment.

Further, eSim allows the creation of interactive training tools that enhance employee performance. Using virtual reality (VR) visors in a virtual environment, associates can master picking, sorting, GTP station activities, QC and more, prior to working on the floor. This saves time and prevents a costly mistake. eSim can also be used to create virtual training to teach current employees new functions on existing equipment, refresh skills, become familiar with new machinery or processes, or acclimate to a new facility layout. With eSim, overall training efficiency can be increased by 10%.

Want more details about how Momentum eSim can put the power of greater predictability to work for you? Read our recent white paper to discover how this versatile resource provides an end-to-end, integrated view of your distribution center (DC), the ability to run multiple “what if” scenarios, and enhanced training.

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