Success Stories
GRINNELL INTERNATIONAL - INDUSTRIAL MANUFACTURING
Grinnell International was a $200 million division of Tyco International (acquired by Anvil in 2000), which manufactures metal pipe fittings. Their foundry process produces 1,000 unique pieces each week. Scheduling the furnaces, molds, painting, and machining operations and equipment is complex, involving thousands of constraints. The Foundry’s scheduler previously created a detailed 1-week schedule over a laborious 2-day process.
Grinnell came to Quantum Leap in search of an optimized foundry scheduling process. The plant’s set of equipment and limited floor space forced many products to pass through the same workstation simultaneously for processing. Some products could not be mixed with others in this workstation. Thus, thousands of constraints had to be created to represent the various combinations that were allowable. Other schedule optimization software packages were unable to handle this magnitude or complexity and several were tested.
Quantum Leap’s business and systems modelers first tackled the problem. Quantum Leap developed a computer model of the foundry relationships and a convenient user interface for the foundry scheduler to manipulate various inputs to the model.
Quantum Leap believes that the first critical step in any IT project is to faithfully represent the business problem – defined by an accurate model. The foundry’s production processes involves just some of these constraints: furnace availability, power availability, line speeds, part incompatibilities, set up times, work-in-process, quality requirements, and line & shift coordination.
Once an accurate process model was developed, Quantum’s software team deployed a system using it’s patented Adaptive Optimization Engine®, which is designed to solve complex optimization problems using a combination of over thirty optimization algorithms. Through this application, the foundry scheduler could now develop detailed shop-floor schedules with the press of a button. Additionally, he could perform “what-if” simulations, enabling him to explore and measure the impact of proposed process changes without affecting the plant’s throughput or daily operations.
The scheduling system was an overwhelming success. Grinnell experienced an increase in plant efficiency from 65% to 93%. Their inventory of work in progress dropped dramatically as production lots were now being coordinated across shifts, machines, and workstations as it flowed through the plant. Total throughput improved, as measured by the number of iron pours per shift and pieces sorted per shift. The system was also able to allow schedules to be created two weeks in advance. Reports are generated identifying bottlenecks and process benchmarking. Shipment due dates improved. And Grinnell can perform “what-if” simulations with their process, adjusting business rules to meet changing business conditions.
“Quantum Leap took a lot of constraints in people’s heads and emotion, quantified them, and worked together to improve foundry performance and better schedule core production. They also enabled us to identify maintenance patterns.”
- Greg Aiello, Grinnell
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