Identifying Bottle Necks In Student Amenities Center

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Problem

A manufacturing warehouse that produces BOPP film rolls, which are industrial-sized rolls of plastic wrap used in shipping, wants to evaluate their current system plan and improve it before building the facility and purchasing equipment.

Solution

Students at the University of Pittsburgh simulated the current system plan by analyzing the company’s order management system, scheduling system, manufacturing process, product packaging, inventory system, and product delivery process.

The project objective was to determine:

• Raw material arrival schedule
• Number of workers required
• Number of forklifts needed to transport pallets to the warehouse
• Number of forklifts required in the shipping area
• Optimal warehouse size

Result

Students simulated multiple scenarios to determine the optimal balance of resources. However, the main limitation of the project was that the company had not yet built the plant, so the actual order rates and volumes could not be confirmed with real data.