Keep Your 3-Legged Stool Upright! Leading Successful Manufacturing Projects

Keep Your 3-Legged
Stool Upright!
Successful Project Management
Brian Harrington
MTN-SIM, LLC

SIMUL8 Corporation | SIMUL8.com | info@SIMUL8.com
About the Presenter
Brian Harrington is a Six Sigma Black Belt with 20
years operations research and simulation experience
at Ford Motor Company. He designs and implements
manufacturing process improvements which
incorporate many conflicting objectives such as
robust, flexible, and Lean systems.
Now running his own discrete event simulation specialists firm MTN-SIM LLC, he
continues to deliver high quality complex models for a wide range of
manufacturing, healthcare, and business process improvements. He also acts as a
technical ambassador for SIMUL8 Corporation assisting in teaching, mentoring,
marketing, and consulting projects.

Housekeeping
1. Audio
2. Q and A
Recording available on: www.simul8.com

Project Management using Simulation
• The facts
• Factors to consider when managing a project
• Tools to identify key input factors
• Decision making using simulation
• Creating trade-offs and balancing
Money
Time
Quality

The Facts…
IBM Institute for Business Value Study
(48 countries, 1400 samples)
60% of projects fail to meet their objective
44% fall short on at least one of their Cost, Quality, Time
objectives
15% miss all of their objectives or are stopped by management
20% Highly successful (“Change Architects”)
35% Moderately successful
45% Below average successful
1
1 Article: “Making Change Work” IBM 2010
Sample size 1,500 practitioners worldwide
2 Article: “Making change work . . . while the work keeps changing” IBM 2014
Sample size 1,380 practitioners worldwide
By Hans-Henrik Jorgensen, Oliver Bruehl and Neele Franke 2014
2

Cost, Quality, and Time
Small or Large, Projects…
Need to be on Budget!
On Time!
And Strive for Continuous Improve of Quality!
Project Management

Conflicting Objectives
Sounds good to upper management, but
how is this even possible?

Enterprise Success Equates to…
 Shorter Development Time
 Beating your Competition to Market
 Delivering Quality
The pressure is on Project Management!

Simulation- Reduces the Risk
Most successful companies use Discrete Event
Simulation to address such critical factors as:
Cost, Quality, and Time

What’s Critical
How do we know what to
focus on when it comes Cost,
Quality, and Time?

Critical to Quality, Cost, Time
Materials
Machinery/
Equipment
Methods
People
Effect:
Not achieving desired
throughput
Companies need to focus on what is critical to the
business and its customers.

CT is Input into a QFD
Quality Functional Deployment
• User Requirements into
Design Parameters
• Correlation Matrix of the
“What’s” & “How’s”
• Prioritizing what is most
important

Include C,Q,T Metrics into your Simulation

Simulation metrics
• Throughput (JPH)
– Changeovers
– Batch Builds
• Number of Repairs
– Repair rate
• Number of Scrapped
Units
– Scrap rate
• Cost
– Number of Carriers
– Number of Pallets
– Number of Tugs & Racks
– Number of Robots

Finance & Income Statement

Poll Question
Does your company’s managers use
simulation results when comparing
costly proposals?
A.Always (100%)
B.Most of the time (80%)
C.Some of the time (50%)
D.Never

Cost
Cost Avoidance- Biggest bang for your buck!
• Comparing simulation scenarios
Replication
• Can you replicate these actions elsewhere?
Additional Cost Measures
•Cost per unit
•Material Costs
•Scrap Costs

Comparing Proposed Solutions
Automated Guided Vehicle System
vs. Tugs and Racks
Large difference in cost per system.
What are the benefits of each system?
Will the company achieve these benefits?
Is there a better place to spend the funds?

Quality
• Equipment
• Product Design
• Method/Process
• Tests
• Repairs
Where to place quality equipment within your facility,
and how much is necessary?

Quality Example
Strategically placing a vision detection
system to analysis weld integrity and
random imperfections.
Reduces scrap
Reduces destructive testing
Reduces heavy & light repairs

Quality within a Bodyshop
Where to place quality equipment within your facility, and how much is
necessary?

Time
What Discrete Event Simulation does best
The model is an animated database of events taking place at
discrete times; producing realistic behavior and results.
Predicts the facilities capability (Parts per Hour)
Provides insight into system performance (Wait, Blocked)
Optimize operating patterns (Shifts, Planned DT)
Predicts long-term behavior (1 yr. of production)
Includes outliers (Catastrophic delays)

We have the Time
Cycle Times
Changeover Time
Breakdown Time
Shift Patterns
Conveyor Speeds
Resource Times
Travel Matrix
Dwell Times
Shelve Life Time
Delays
Conditional Time
Load Time
Unload Time
Simulation Time
Warm-up Time
… The list goes on

Overall Program Timing
As for project management the simulation
analysis will reduce the overall development
time, it will keep the focus on the critical steps.
Allowing managers to make decisions, accept
implementation bids, and keep the program
moving forward.

It’s a Bit of a Juggling Act
“Project management is like juggling three balls
– time, cost and quality. Program management is
like a troupe of circus performers standing in a
circle, each juggling-three balls and swapping balls
from time to time.”
– G. Reiss
1 Project Management Demystified: Today's Tools and Techniques GEOFF REISS
1

Poll Question
How would you rate your company’s
success with respect to Projects?
A.Highly Successful
B.Moderately Successful
C.Below Average

Balanced Project Management
Project Managers must keep the project moving forward
On Time
Within Budget
Best in Class Quality
How?
Corporate Strategy
1.Data-backed Decisions
2.“Simulation Milestones” within your strategic timeline
3.“Simulation Sign-Offs”
Simulation studies must be sized
properly to deliver Results at Key
Milestones!

Keep your eye on the ball
Simulation models can…
Address all three areas of concern
Justify trade-offs within your development plan
Identify interrelationships between key input factors
Provide the muscle to keep your project on target!
Q TC
Q TC
Q
TC

Questions?

Questions?
If you have any questions around this topic,
please email: brian.h@simul8.com
Continue the discussion on the SIMUL8 Users Group
– LinkedIn Group

Keep Your 3-Legged Stool Upright! Leading Successful Manufacturing Projects

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