In today's manufacturing organizations it has become imperative to produce finished goods on the promised delivery time, at the least cost & with best of the quality. Much of this gets enabled by having a good facility layout which can withstand the pressures of ever changing market situation for a longer time period. At EES we help organizations to plan, design, develop, validate & optimize Layouts (both in 2-D & 3-D) whether it is a requirement for a Greenfield or a Brownfield manufacturing facility, based on the principles of lean, using Smart Factory Objects from e-Factory software. Many of our customers in the OEM & Tier-I supplier segments have realized tangible benefits vis-à-vis optimization of space, material flow & resources.

Business challenges of today call for an effective logistics system which is able to deliver the right goods on the right time at the right location within the manufacturing plant or in an entire supply chain. Today many companies lay a very strong focus on creating a logistics & distribution system which will be able to cater in a better manner to the dynamics of customer demand for the present or in the future. At EES, we have also endeavored to cater to such needs in the logistics segment of the industry & have been successful in providing value to the customers whether it is in the area of enabling design, visualization and simulation of material flow process in a Logistics & Distribution Center (LDC) or validating the throughput of a Baggage Handling System (BHS) design before implementation, for a world class infrastructure logistics company, using Discrete Event Simulation (DES) software tools.

The Warehouse function is an integral part of the total distribution system and creates a clearly identified break point between supply & demand aspects of any business. Improving the flow of goods through a warehouse by minimizing handling & movement can generate significant & measurable business benefits. In this area, we at EES have enabled the following benefits for our customers in OEM & Tier-I segment:

• Improve the material flow
• Reduce Aisle congestion
• Improve storage space efficiency
• Improve traceability of goods

Delivering high quality products consistently at competitive prices is a key to survival in today's business scenario. Therefore it has become necessary to reduce costs incurred due to inefficiencies in operation. Identifying these needs, we at EES enable customers to overcome the challenges by helping them to optimize inventory, resources, or throughput using Genetic Algorithm (GA) run method or otherwise within the Discrete Event Simulation model of the production or a logistics system. In this area, our customers were able to realize benefits like:

• 15-20% savings in planned capital investment for machine resources
• 15-25% savings by releasing blocked capital on unwanted shop-floor inventory

In any manufacturing plant, the material flow becomes an important factor in deciding the throughput of a product or the quantum of resources that will be used to produce it. Hence, material flow in a plant also impacts the manufacturing cost of the Product. As one of the very important guiding principles for creating a layout, we at EES have created a value for our customers by analyzing their material flow & subsequently created layouts for them which enabled reducing their material movement, material handling manpower & aisle congestion. Typical benefits realized by our customers in this area are:

• 20-30% decrease in material flow
• 10-20% savings in material handling manpower cost

We also perform Vehicle articulation analysis whereby we have executed feasibility studies on articulation of different vehicles like trucks, pick-ups, forklifts & tuggers etc. within a planned facility, using 2-D motion path planner simulation software. The vehicles to be simulated for articulation can also be customized. This analysis helps our customers to better design the aisles, loading / unloading docks, parking areas & peripheral roads within the manufacturing facility, in the planning stage itself.

We also provide services on creating 3-D layout from a given input 2-D layout using Smart Factory objects from e-Factory software. This is very useful as it provides complete visualization of the facility in 3-D & is very powerful for presentations during the Proof-Of-Concept (POC) stage of any facility planning Project. We have provided such services to customers in OEM & Tier-I segments for creating complete virtual walkthrough in 3-D for an Assembly line, Paint shop, Machine shop, Robotic line or even a complete manufacturing facility.

In today's manufacturing scenario, Assembly process planning starts on the shop-floor concurrent to the product design & development stage in the R & D. Here Digital Manufacturing helps to create an associative 3-D virtual manufacturing environment whereby we can iteratively design & simulate the manufacturing processes & resources to be used in the plant for producing a product, using Process Design & Simulation software tools. It helps in validating the product design vis-à-vis ease of assembly. We have provided value to our customers in OEM & Tier-I segment by virtually validating the assembly process sequence for their complex product designs & also by validating their assembly line layouts vis-à-vis station-wise area & line balancing requirements.

In today's manufacturing work environment where human safety is of prime importance, improving the ergonomics of the product designs & workplace cannot be overlooked. To evaluate & improve the Human Factor Engineering aspects of an existing or planned manufacturing / logistics facility, we use certain human task simulation tools like Jack & eM-Human which are based on certain anthropometric data from different regions of the world.