A logistics stone problem - for students and every true logistican

The factory has to be efficient!

the map of the whole supply chain.

In this situation the factory has a semi autonomous research facitily. It was build in several steps and uses the sushi belt approach to produce basic items for the intermediate products, the intermediate products itself and with them the research packages. The research packages are only produced if they are necessary for a special research project. This supply strategy is called make to order.

The principle is to send only simple materials to the research facility. But some intermediate products are too complicated for that. Because of this, the intermediate products have to be produced elsewhere and put on stock. They will be requested as required (make to stock). The sushi belt approach is explanied here. If you want more information on this topic, you can follow the step by step tutorial in the sushi belt playlist.

This is a better solution than the previous one. For a more detailed explanation you can read the linked blog or watch the video. The old version needed 16 products to produce all different research packages. The new one only needs 12, which is an indicator, that it is a more simple approach.

But is it possible to improve the setup even more??

The factory with the totorial areas  (green: pull and buffer - pink: research and sushi - yellow: make to order).  

The idea of the management

The management discovered that there are cheap stones in the central warehouse, stones at the research facitlities and even at the high furnace street. Furthermore they found out, that stone bricks are stored in the warehouse as well. Also there are two brick productions, one at the furnaces and one in the research facilities. 

The basic idea is to centralize stones only at the furnaces and to put tracks in the warehouse. But this build up has several side effects which leads to the question: Is this approach better than the current solution? 

This is the task of the students: Calculate the consequences of this reorganisation!

Working material:

Factory Base Tour I: The idea of stones to tracks

Factory Base Tour II: More a about the factory and layouts

The factory a brief powerpoint presentation with layouts.

The layouts 

1 tile = 1 m²

high furnace street and local warehouse

high furnace street to central warehouse

central warehouse

Research facilities

Credits

Thanks to Sebastian for improving the text.

This is an edited version of the previous one 2021-02-09