Does SimPlan support me in collecting data for the simulation and what if I don’t have any?
Harry Kestenbaum answers this question for us:
“What we don’t do is collect data in the actual sense, i.e. standing next to the machines with a stopwatch. That is usually something that is the customer’s responsibility, because there is also a cost factor behind it, let’s not kid ourselves. It is still cheaper to have the customer collect the data himself.
Sometimes, however, the data is simply missing. We get the data and most of the time the customer already knows about his “blind spots”. This is then the advantage of such a simulation, because “process replaces data”. Because the simulation model generates the subsequent data in the process all by itself, so to speak, via the rules of how a process runs. So, if necessary, I don’t even need the detailed information about the various stages, but primarily the order data to feed it. The rest is taken care of in the model by the process description.
In this respect, the prejudice “I can’t run a simulation because I don’t have any data” is not tenable.
But we can actually only disagree with that, if you know the process, you don’t need so much data. And a big advantage that we know from many projects is:
Of course, the simulation also relentlessly reveals when certain data, which are also necessary for planning and costing, are not available.
This leads to the fact that at this point, rework has to be done accordingly, if it makes sense. Because you don’t always have to take a closer look at all the data, because it’s only where the bottleneck is that I might have to take a closer look.”