SIMULATION COMPARISON PARAMETERS

1] Throughput and Make-span Objective: [Selected]

To maximize the throughput of the facility is one of the most general criteria
adapted in the industry. Throughput is equivalent to the output rate of the
facility. The output rate is frequently decided by the output rate of the
bottleneck machine. Maximizing Throughput of the facility means
maximizing output of the bottleneck machine. The objective is that “The
scheduler must try to ensure that the bottleneck machine is never idle”.

Minimizing Make-span is also important, as its objective is closely related to

the objective of Throughput measure. The make-span is denoted my C max
and calculated as:
n

Cmax = max { Cj } where,

j=1

Cj = Completion time of Job j.

Make span = Max [PED (Opn) – PSD (Op1)]
∀ MO

It is the difference of planned end date of last operation and planned start date
of first operation, over all MO scheduled.

Make Span

PSD (Op1)] PED (Opn)

2] Average Production Cycle:

This parameter defines average production cycle per MO. The Make span
only shows the start and end of the scheduled MO’s globally, where as it is
not indicating anything about quantum of MO processed during this span.

It may happen that with different set of MO, make span is more or less
same, but one schedule is able to produce higher number of MO’s then
others. This criterion is also important, when production environment have
large number of MO’s and of similar priorities.

Average Production Cycle = ∑ [Cycle time for MO] / number of MO’s

∀all MO

(CT [1]+CT [2]+………….+CT [n])

APC =
n

CT [1]
CT [2]

CT [n-r]

CT [n]

3] Lateness or Tardiness: [Selected]

 The lateness of the job j is defined as:

Lj = [Cj - dj ] here dj = Due date of job j

And Cj = Actual Completion Date

a] Total Lateness can be defined as:

Summation of all the lateness for all Manufacturing Orders.

Total Lateness = [L1 + L2 + L3 + ……………+ Ln]

b] Average Lateness can be defined as:

L1 + L2 + L3 + ……………+ Ln
Total Lateness =
n

Another criteria related to due date is Tardiness. Tardiness means number of jobs those are
tardy in a given environment at a particular time, and it is not concerned with how much tardy a
job actual is.

The tardiness of a job j is defined as:

Tj = max {(Cj-dj), 0}

a] Total Tardiness can be defined as:

Total Tardiness = [T1 + T2 + T3 + ……………+ Tn]

b] Average Tardiness can be defined as:

T1 + T2 + T3 + ……………+ Tn
Total Lateness =
n
4] Total Weighted Delay:

Some time it may happen that though the total delay is quite large but the
high contribution is from manufacturing orders, which are not with high
priority. This situation may be acceptable, as the MO with higher priority
has less delay.

It may be a god idea to calculate total weighted delay, which is an index

with two parameters, namely delay and priority of manufacturing order.

a] Total Weighted Delay can be defined as:

Summation of all the weighted Delay / lateness for manufacturing orders.

Total Weighted Delay = [P1*L1 + P2*L2 + P3*L3 + ……………+ Pn*Ln]

b] Average Weighted Delay can be defined as:

[P1*L1 + P2*L2 + P3*L3 + ……………+ Pn*Ln]

Average Weighted Delay =
n

One can set standard indicator to compare these values and to find out whether
the value of total weighted delay is good or not good.
For example:

Standard Indicator = [average priority]*[k*Average production cycle time]

Here k is a multiplication factor, which is nothing but the acceptable deviation as

percentage of average production cycle time.

5] Resource utilization: [Selected]

 The most common indicator used in practice is average resource utilization.
This indicator provides good overview of the shop performance.

The average resource utilization can be defined as:

∑[Resource utilization for all resources]

Average resource utilization =
Number of Resources

6] Production Cost:

There can be multiple derivatives for calculating production cost and related
indicators. As at present, in Incoplan, only one cost parameter is defined,
which is cost of resource usage, which in tern can provide a fraction of
production cost.

This value can be defined as production run cost or resource usage cost.
The value can be defined as:

For all resources -

Resource usage cost = ∑ [Resource usage time*usage cost per unit time]

7] Q - Ratio: [Selected]
 The Q-ratio is also one of the good indicators about your schedule. This is
the ratio of work content to cycle time.

∑ [Work content for all MO’s]

Q-ratio =
∑ [Production Cycle time for all MO’s]

There could be different methods, to calculate the terms defined in the

equation. Let us try to understand the meaning of these terms:

Take example of Green MO, in the following illustration:

WCT1 WCT2 WCT3 WCT4

Production Cycle time

Normally, following could be the guidelines: for value of the parameter-

Good Value between 1.00 and 0.75

Average Value between 0.75 and 0.50
Poor Value less then 0.50

8] Average WIP:
The average WIP is being calculated on linear basis. For the current application
the idea could be to identify the event where inventory profile changes and take
account only these point to count and calculate average inventory.

The problem here is in Incoplan, we don’t have information about value for these
inventories, and therefore it is difficult to measure shop wide average inventory,
as unit of measure may not be same for all items.

It is possible to show the average inventory per item, but this information shall
not be of much use to the end user.

9] Time Ratio: [Selected]

There are numerous methods to define various ratios of time values, which
possibly evaluate the shop performance.

Ratio between following parameters can be defined –

a] Total time – Make span

b] Total set up time – Sum of all set up time(s)
c] Total Run Time – Sum of all run time(s)
d] Total productive time – Sum of all [internal setup+ run time]
e] Total unproductive Time – Sum of all [external setup + move time]

Ratios those could be defined – [some of them are as follows]

[Total Setup time / Total time] – where set ups are important and costly too.

[Total run time / Total time] – important for Capital Intensive Industry

[Total Productive time / Total unproductive time] – general performance criteria

There are many other parameters that can be defined. For example:

10] Total Penalty:

This is nothing but the multiplication of total delay and penalty per unit time, over
all manufacturing orders those are scheduled.

11] Customer Service Level:

This criterion may very much helpful in today’s competitive world. The question is
how to define an appropriate criterion for the evaluation.

The simplest solution could be to provide one parameter:

Number of Manufacturing Orders Delayed, or

Percentage of Manufacturing Orders Delayed.

May be the second option is better.

 PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Management Information System

The Management Information System is a tool, which provides the symptoms of the
production system, to measure and evaluate identify the performance. Another use of this
Management Information System is that user can compare two Simulations and / or
multiple simulations to identify the better Schedule and to know a priory the system
behavior.

1] Comparison of a Single Simulation:

The core idea behind comparison of single simulation is that user can find out the system
performance based on indicators or parameters defined. This provides values for the
various parameters for the selected Schedule / Simulation.

The comparison of the single simulation shall be based on parameters defined. It shall
provide options to select one or multiple simulation parameters.
The other option that could be given is:

Single Simulation Comparison

Single Parameter Multiple Parameters

Complete View [All Mo’s]

View per MO

View per Customer

View based on Parameters

The MIS shall provide different views, with reference to the options selected by the user.
One can visualize what graphics can be seen by the user, which is shown in the following
views.

Total Delay

MO1 MO2 MO3 MO4 MO5 MO6 MO7 MO8 MO9

Single Simulation: Single Parameter [Delay] – view per Manufacturing Order

The left side shows the contribution of individual manufacturing order in Total delay and
right side shows the value of delay per manufacturing order.
2] Comparison of a Multiple Simulation:

When user is comparing multiple simulations, he can have a wide flexibility to select the
options, as primarily this is comparison of two or more simulations based on criteria
defined.

Again the options are with user to select a single parameter or multiple parameters for the
simulation comparison. If the user selects multiple parameters, it should be weighted to
produce a combined result based on relative importance of criterion selected by user.

The following view shows the actual view of simulation comparison for multiple simulations
and in the following example there are two simulations. The weights can be defined here.
For example, in the view shown below, three criterions are selected, namely: Tardiness,
Lateness and Make span. User can select weight for each parameter between values zero
and hundred. This selection drives the process of calculating integrated result for the
simulations performed.

In this view, user can also see the individual simulations by exploring the left window for
each simulation. This helps to fine values for all parameters for a particular simulation.
Other view that can be explored for future reference could be:

VIEW one:

This view compares the values for all parameters for all simulations, and in spite of this
provides a good vies for comparing individual values for parameter selected across all
simulations. And on the right side it provides, weighted combined value or Score for each
simulation.

The alternative view for this could be to show the weight selected for each parameter and
cumulative values calculated for each simulation, using weight defined.
This view is shown below:

Here, user can also select individual parameter to see the values for that parameter
across all the simulations.
VIEW two:

Parameter
Graph
Time
Total Delay
Total Delay
Total Cost
Make Span
Set up

Cost

Total Cost
Delay Cost

Performance
Value

Utilization
No of MO delay

Chart Type

Bar Chart

Pie Chart
Simulations
Line Chart

This view provides the flexibility in terms of specific selection of the parameter and type of
graph you would like to view. In the above example, user has selected only Total Delay
and Total Cost parameters to compare the simulations and in addition user has selected
Line chart as option.
 VIEW three:

Parameter
Total Delay Graph
Time
Total Cost
Total Delay
Make Span Total Cost

Set up Sim 2
Sim 3
Cost
Value

Total Cost
Sim 1 Sim 4
Delay Cost
Simulations
Performance
Utilizatio Total Delay
n
No of MO delay
Sim 2

Chart Type Sim 1

Value

Bar Chart Sim 3

Pie Chart Sim 4

Line Chart Simulatio

ns
This view is extension of earlier graph. Here, for example user has selected all three type
of graphs to be shown, and selected two parameters, as selected earlier.

This view provides a better picture for the comparison, but it may not be practical to
implement this analogy, as with higher number of selections, the graph would be too
complex. Therefore, better option could be to provide selection of single type of graph at a
time and user can view all three types for the same data, separately.

These are just the alternatives, and at present may not be feasible options. But
certainly these are documented to look for any feasibility and enhancement for
the MIS tool and to satisfy any specific user requirement(s).
Additional Parameters and comparison Methodology:

As the management is more or less interested in Economical performance of the factory, it

is quite essential to provide value added reports based on operating economics. These
reports typically built on Cost and profit factors.

The cost are classified on two large segments:

Productive cost: Can be defined as any cost involving value addition on the product.
Non-productive cost: Can be defined as the cost which does not add any value to the
product.

Management is typically interested in minimizing non-productive cost. The same

methodology applies to the time segment, as it can be clearly defined as productive and
non-productive times.

Display economic data translated into monetary terms:

Saving of X francs on the WIP, a saving of X francs on the set-up time: a manager is
typically interested in economical data/figures! Refer also to the Excel file of Incoplan
feasibility (I’ll send it to Sameer if he does not have it)

Display ratios of increase: for example:

The machine utilization rate has increased by X% per scenario

In addition to this, display the concept of optimization of performance: For example:

Usage rate has increased by X, either percentage or actual values terms.
Setup time has reduced by X, either percentage or actual values terms.
WIP has reduced by X %.

[All the above in monetary terms in francs and other currency]

Note: while translating into monetary terms, indicate the currency you are converting to!
Global criteria for measurement:

1] Deviation with respect to the desired end date:

Minimum deviation, average value, maximum deviation and standard deviation
(Variance = "standard deviation")

2] Weighted Analysis of the number of delayed MOs:

This provides value of percentage Manufacturing order delayed over the total
number of manufacturing orders, to get the rate of service by filtering the MOs of
Finished products.

This is analysis of the number of days of delay of MOs: minimum, average and
maximum delay, standard deviation.

3] Analysis of cycle time:

Calculate minimum, average and maximum with standard deviation.

4] Analysis of queues:
Calculate minimum, average and maximum with standard deviation.

5] Analysis of run-time compared with the cycle time:

Calculate Minimum, average and maximum with variance [maximum – minimum],
in percentage.

6] Analysis of the occupation time of machines: run-time as compared with free time:
Calculate minimum, average and maximum, as a percentage.

7] Analysis of the setup time in comparison with run-time:

Calculate minimum, average and maximum as percentage.

8] Comparison of total working days against total days in make span:

Provides information about percentage working days over a horizon.

9] Number of days of delay in percentage, as compared to the total number of days,

which is nothing but make span for that manufacturing order.
This can be calculated for each MO and can also be calculated for group of MO.
This is a good indicator of Service Rate.

10] Time gained in setup grouping:

Provides value for time saved for setup because of grouping of work tickets, in
absolute value and in percentage of total setup time for the schedule.

11] Value of a simulation:

This is essentially the Cost of production for a particular simulation / schedule.