May 2020 Student Simulation Competition - Contest Overview

1st
Sim Squad
Sim Squad Project
Sim Squad Introduction
2nd
Team Cyan
Team Cyan Project
Team Cyan Introduction
3rd
Royal-Tea
Royal-Tea Project
Royal-Tea IntroVideoduction
4th
PaulSquad
PaulSquad Project
PaulSquad Introduction

Overview of Contest:

There are two ways to enter the Simio Student Case Competition. You can either enter directly or through class participation. This contest, we had 15 teams enter directly (29 students) and 39 instructors with 318 teams (1417 students) for a total of 333 teams (1446 students).

We also had representation from the following 17 countries:

  • Chile
  • China
  • Colombia
  • Dominican Republic
  • El Salvador
  • France
  • Germany
  • Guatemala
  • India
  • Mexico
  • Netherlands
  • Portugal
  • South Africa
  • Thailand
  • Turkey
  • United Kingdom
  • USA

The 1446 students came from these 49 schools:

  • Auburn University
  • Baruch College, CUNY
  • Binghamton University
  • CETYS Universidad
  • Chulalongkorn University
  • College of Engineering Trivandrum
  • College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram
  • Delft University of Technology
  • East Carolina University
  • Georgia Institute of Technology
  • Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico
  • Instituto Tecnologico de Morelia /TecNM
  • Instituto Tecnológico Superior de Nuevo Casas Grandes Chihuahua
  • Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
  • Istanbul Technical University
  • Jawahar engineering college
  • North Carolina State University
  • Oakland University
  • Ohio University
  • Oklahoma State University
  • Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg
  • Penn State Behrend
  • Rochester Institute Of Technology
  • Sichuan University
  • SUNY Binghamton
  • Tecnológico Nacional de México/Instituto Tecnológico de Morelia
  • Universidad Central del Este
  • Universidad Centroamericana "José Simeón Cañas"
  • Universidad de San Carlos de Guatemala
  • Universidad de Santiago de Chile - USACH
  • Universidad de Sonora
  • Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
  • Universidad EAFIT
  • Universidad EIA
  • Universidad Loyola del Pacifico
  • Universidad Nacional de Colombia Sede Medellín
  • Universidad Panamericana
  • Universidad Tecnologica Fidel Velazquez
  • Universite de Bordeaux Dpt Qlio
  • University of Coimbra
  • University of Houston
  • University of Michigan Ann Arbor
    University of Pittsburgh
  • University of Virginia
  • University of Warwick/ Warwick manufacturing group
  • University of Washington
  • University of Witwatersrand
  • UTSH
  • Virginia Tech

Summary of the Problem:

The Miebach Distribution Center (MDC) is a warehouse that stores footwear and apparel items which are shipped as outgoing orders to customers. These orders range from “singles” which are single consumer purchases to multi-item orders. MDC is noticing an increase in orders as well as a diversification of order types. Warehouse planners and mangers are looking to improve picking operation strategy to meet their customer delivery goals. The planners and managers must determine how to balance the workload across the warehouse system, which includes taking into consideration the teams that work downstream of picking. The scope of this project starts with picking units from shelved storage and ends with packing and shipping the orders.

Due to the uptick of orders, the MDC is transitioning into wave picking management methodology or “waving” to collect the units from their storage locations. To wave the MDC warehouse, orders are grouped together, and the grouped orders’ units are split up by their corresponding warehouse zone storage location. The zone is picked by the workers and the units collected are moved to a staging area. Once all units from a wave reach the staging area, the wave is sent to packing and shipping. The wave is organized back into orders and shipped out.

The MDC is searching for recommendations for the best waving and picking strategy for managing their warehouse which optimizes labor utilization and minimizes missed customer delivery goals. The wave picking strategy should include the ideal size of a wave based on order attributes, unit locations, and acceptable picking receptacle. The criteria that places orders in the same wave should also be investigated. Additionally, the MDC would like to identify any warehouse re-zoning that would benefit the waving processes. The MDC is hoping for a set of rules that helps future formulation of waves.

Read the full problem!

Judging Criteria:

The judging was based on:

  • Quality/clarity of the presentation
  • Analysis/use of input data
  • Modeling detail/approach
  • Model internal documentation
  • Verification and Validation
  • Quality of animation
  • Experimentation/exploration of alternatives
  • Analysis of results
  • Quality of the recommendations
  • Overall project quality and Executive Summary

For more detail, see the Contest Judging Criteria.

Judging Panel:

Academic and Commercial:

Jackie Niemeyer Raul Zuniga Jason Jackson Mustafa Gocken
Felix Vicknair
Director at Miebach (USA)
Jackie Niemeyer
Consultant at Miebach (USA)
Jason Jackson
Manager at Miebach (USA)
Mustafa Gocken
Assistant Professor at Adana Science and Technology University (Turkey)
       
Katy Smith Dusan Sormaz  Stephanie Yeap Kris Jaeger-Helton
Katy Smith
Management Engineer III at Emory Healthcare (USA)
Dusan Sormaz
Professor at Ohio University (USA)
Stephanie Yeap
Operations Research Analyst at Eastman Chemical Company (USA)
Dr. B. Kris Jaeger-Helton
Director for Design in Engineering Education Division at Northeastern University (USA)
       
Iurii Sas Iván Gonzalo Vilaboa Moolman van Aarde  
Iurii Sas
Operations Research Manager at Eastman Chemical Company (USA)
Iván Gonzalo Vilaboa
Adjunct Professor at ITBA (Argentina)
Moolman van Aarde
Head of Simulation at Process Design and Automation (South Africa)
 
       
Mardoqueo Velasquez Cassidy P. Shaffer    
Mardoqueo Velasquez
Faculty and Researcher at Universidad del Valle de Guatemala (Guatemala)
Cassidy P. Shaffer
Advanced Operations Research Analyst at Eastman Chemical Company (USA)
   

 

Simio LLC:

David Sturrock Caleb Whitehead Adam Sneath  
David Sturrock
Vice President of Products
Elizabeth Millar
Applications Engineer
Adam Sneath
Applications Engineer
 
       
Caleb Whitehead Caleb Whitehead Caleb Whitehead  
Caleb Whitehead
Applications Engineer
Paul Glasser
Delivery Manager
Ryan Welch Luttrell
Product Engineer
 

May 2020 Contest Winners

First Place

Sim Squad
Binghamton University

Team Introduction Project Video

more details >

Second Place

Team Cyan
Delft University of Technology

Team Introduction Project Video

more details >

Third Place

Fourth Place

PaulSquad
University of Columbia

Team Introduction Project Video

more details >

Top 9 including Honorable Mentions & Semi-Finalists

The top 9 teams out of 333 

more details >

Contest Overview

Contest Overview, Summary of Problem, Judging Criteria and Judges

more details >