Bewo Engineering Has Used Predictive Simulation to Design and Validate a New Building for Sugar Production

BEWO Engineering, an engineering company dedicated to planning and development of bulk material handling systems, offers its customers a competitive advantage through a wide range of technical services.

With regard to its focus, BEWO has been approached by a company specializing in sugar production and is planning to expand and relocate part of its production to a place located 20 km from its original location. This step included the equipment of six production lines, storage areas, packing areas and distribution channels.

It was necessary for the relocation to be as smooth as possible and with minimal disruption to the existing production line and its processes. To be able to ensure these measures, BEWO turned to a predictive simulation that allowed it to look into the new design of the plant and gain sufficient confidence.

BEWO first created a digital twin of existing equipment and manufacturing processes in WITNESS. This model was used to understand the production flow; including the journey of every one of nearly a hundred products. To make sure that the digital twin was an accurate representation of reality, the model portrayed activity corresponding to a one-year operation and was then verified by workshop staff.

With a verified model of the current state, alternative suggestions regarding layout were developed using WITNESS. Through creating a data interface via Excel to run the model; various cycles, speeds and production programs were quickly tested and analyzed.

Thanks to predictive simulation, BEWO Engineering has got a clear idea of the most suitable options available for configuring relocated production lines. In particular, workers were able to identify which production lines were susceptible to problems, allowing them to tailor adjustment and planning to avoid future problems, while being able to handle diverse demand.

Furthermore, by analyzing the pallet and packaging needs of each layout, BEWO Engineering was able to determine if an additional forklift is needed depending on the chosen layout, saving time and gaining confidence in decision making.

WITNESS predictive simulation has provided both BEWO Engineering and their customers with a better understanding of the processes and their mutual interdependencies, and will support their strategic decision-making while moving the plant until the project is completed in 2019.

The model confirmed the necessity and importance of a particular line and determined the optimal locations and sizes of stores, which helped reduce the potential risks associated with moving such a large part of the production. The availability of measurable and objective data has caused that analysis replaced intuition, opening the door for better, faster, and more secure decision-making.