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Product category: Simulation, modelling and validation software
News Release from: Lanner Group | Subject: Computer simulation
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 16 May 2000

Ford focus on simulation

Ford has been using computer simulation, in some form or other, for designing and operating its engine manufacturing facilities since the mid 80s.

Ford has been using computer simulation, in some form or other, for designing and operating its engine manufacturing facilities since the mid 80s Witness is available worldwide to all Powertrain User's and it is evidence of how Ford today regards simulation as an indispensable tool in production planning - and one which can provide what the company describes as "an enormous competitive advantage"

John Ladbrook, from the Productivity Engineering section at Ford's Powertrain Manufacturing and Plant Engineering Group located at Dunton, has been at the forefront in waging the crusade to incorporate simulation in the manufacturing process.

In this article he describes how simulation has developed over the years.

Manufacturing engines simplistically involves Process Engineering, Layout Engineering and Productivity Engineering.

The key role of simulation lies in the latter and is used essentially to determine - and hopefully to maximise - the capacity of the plant using information from the Process and Layout Engineering operations.

The computer power at our disposal in the '80s was, by today's standards, fairly limited, (Commodore PET PCs.) The simulation tools that were available to us then, primarily to help validate the manufacturing process (initially for the 1.8 litre petrol and 2.5 diesel engines) were basically text-based, with no screen display facility and input controlled by datafiles.

It was slow and very time-intensive, and one thing that our manufacturing engineers did not have then - and evene more so today - was spare time.

If the true potential of simulation was to be realised, more computer power was needed.

We had to make simulation more accessible and easier to use.

We developed a program called Mentor, an early generic simulation program built round a Fortran-based package from Lanner Group, the intention of which was to enable engineers to build their own simulation models.

The big step forward came in around 1986 when Lanner Group introduced the first versions of Witness, a faster, more flexible and easier to use package, which was first used by our Operation Research department.

By this time Ford had switched to a Wang computer system, which put a PC on every desk.

This offered the possibility of putting simulation across the network.

Witness was first used in the manufacturing environment for the Zetec engine operations at our Bridgend plant, with Lanner Group helping us with training and implementation.

But I was still searching for a way to get more people to use simulation; I needed something that would do the same job, but quicker, with faster input and response.

I have always believed that simulation should be the first tool in any manufacturing programme.

Make it easy and quick to use, and everyone will use it.

That breakthrough came last year, when we developed a system which I dubbed FIRST - Fast Interactive Replacement Simulation Tool.

Again based on Witness (the latest version) running in the background, this uses Excel spreadsheets, with which virtually everyone is by now familiar.

Data is input into the spreadsheet and once complete it just requires a touch of a button for the model to be built and executed.

I have always been a great believer in 'thinking outside of the box'.

Having just completed, in my spare time, a Masters Degree in Philosophy at Birmingham University I started to look at the situation from another perspective - that of deductive logic, if you like.

The simulation process could be greatly simplified if we looked at the logic behind the process.

I realised that the inputs on which simulation relied could be rationalised - in other words, limit the number of 'what if' variables to a sensible minimum.

Using existing research information we were able to eliminate much of the input data on, for example, machine breakdowns and the time and frequency of tool changes.

Combined with the use of Visual Basic to implement a better interface between Excel and the Witness program, this enabled us to dramatically cut down the time taken to build and, more importantly, to run simulation models.

Today we can model 4500 hours of machine running time in just 45 minutes.

Simulation has thus become a tool any engineer can use, very quickly and with relatively little training.

We are now in a situation where we have global licences for Powertrain processes and the enhanced simulation that helps to maximise their operation.

All this has coincided with an inexorable improvement in engine manufacturing plant, with better and more compact machines and reduced process times.

This has led to a wider range of data that can be input into modelling programs - greater detail on labour and shift patterns for example (although we still have to rationalise the data as mentioned above) - and real time data such as 'live' line monitoring can now be downloaded into the simulation process.

Consequently, although the basic features and functions of simulation have not changed much, it has become more detailed, responsive and accurate.

And it can be quantified.

Detailed modelling was undertaken for the V6 engine plant in Cologne, and the changes adopted as a result produced a three per cent increase in output of the highly profitable V6 engine which is exported to the North American market.

The competitive advantage resulting from simulation is patently enormous.

Perhaps the most exciting work on simulation currently under way is in bringing it up into the 'Front End'.

Simulation is now being used in plant design, with the development of standard sets of line-building elements, including graphic icons, into which simulation data can be imported.

Ford is at the pioneering leading-edge in the use of this 'visual factory' system (VisFactory for short) where 3D design layout programs can drive Witness simulation tools - and do it very quickly.

The models are also no longer the exclusive province of the backroom design engineers; once a model has been built it can be sent off to the customer plants for day to day use.

And in that frenetic environment it simply must be fast and easy to use! We have come a long way since Commodore PETs were laboriously struggling to crunch numbers.

With the use of Witness tools integrated into our own processes, running in the background or, as with VisFactory, appearing at front of stage, we have made simulation an indispensable part of the engine manufacturing process; accurate, detailed and quick and easy to use.

There was initially some scepticism about modelling, concerning the validity of the data being used and the results produced.

But these reservations have largely disappeared as simulation has proved its worth time and time again.

"Is that right?" was a question I was frequently asked in the early day; my answer has always been "much more right that using guesswork instead of modelling!" Back in the mid '80s I had a dream of simulation as a standard tool across the manufacturing engineering spectrum, not just in my own Productivity Engineering department.

The dream is coming true!.

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