Improve
Compare production line designs on output, cost, area and staffing.
Choose what to optimize and what to limit: throughput, equipment, floor area, lead time, cost, operators. Improve builds and simulates alternatives, keeps the ones nothing beats, and recommends one. Nothing changes until you open it.
From that runSimulated, 1 h runs
| Design | Output | Area | Cost | Operators |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current: three manual benches | 62.5 / h | 40 m² | 10 | 4.7 |
| Recommended: compact cell for frame prepRecommended | 64.1 / h | 32 m² | 15 | 4.2 |
| Two lines | 122.7 / h | 80 m² | 20 | 9.4 |
| Smallest area, extra frame capacity | 68.7 / h | 16 m² | 34 | 3.8 |
Target 60 / h. Cost is the machines' capex in the project's own units. Every run also names the stage that limits the line and why: a machine short on capacity, or stations waiting on each other.
How it works
It builds the alternatives, runs them, and keeps the ones nothing beats
Improve starts from the line on your canvas. It tries changes, simulates every design exactly as Run does, with the same product mix, run length and random seed, and keeps a design only if no other is better on every goal at once.
What it tries
- CapacityMore or fewer machines at a stageStarting where the run says the line is held: the stage short on capacity, or stations waiting on each other.
- FlowBuffers, runners and bypassesBuffer sizes, material runners, a bypass past a station that blocks the way.
- EquipmentOther machines from your libraryA compatible machine instead of the current one, a shared feeder, a second line.
- LayoutRegenerated designsSome candidates are built again from scratch, so it is not stuck near the line you started with.
How it recommends
- Your goalsOptimize some, limit othersThroughput, equipment, floor area, lead time, cost and operators: pick what to improve and what may not get worse.
- The frontierOnly designs nothing beatsA live trade-off chart shows them as they are found; a design another one beats on every goal is dropped.
- The pickYour library firstIt recommends a design built from machines in your library. A design that changes a machine itself (an extra position, a bypass, a new combined cell) is recommended only when nothing from your library meets the goal, and it is marked.
- Your callNothing changes until you open itEach design opens in its own workspace; stop the search any time and keep what is verified.