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Centre gains recognition

A Sheffield Hallam University product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team May 20, 2003

The specialist team at Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Systems and Enterprise Engineering has gained both national and European recognition.

The specialist team at Sheffield Hallam University's Centre for Systems and Enterprise Engineering has gained both national and European recognition.

The team's work with manufacturers that want to drive their business ahead and dramatically improve their performance has now been awarded two major accreditations.

It is the team's high-tech problem solving skills that are under the spotlight.

Led by Prof Terrence Perera, the university's simulation experts have been acclaimed as a Centre of Expertise in Manufacturing (CEM) by the Department for Trade and Industry, in recognition of the valuable role that the centre plays in the fields of computer simulation and modelling, control and automation and advanced manufacturing management.

The centre's success in the regional and national arena has been joined by European recognition of the team's achievements.

The centre has been invited to become a member of Sim-Serv, a European initiative, which aims to help manufacturers to improve production by using simulation technologies.

Sim-Serv helps manufacturers to identify the areas where applying simulation has highest impact and shortest payback time, helping their businesses succeed.

According to Terence Perera, "Simulation can play a key role in the management decision making process for manufacturing companies.

It allows managers to run 'what if' scenarios on decisions such as plant layout, or resource utilisation in a virtual environment.

Of course this reduces the time and cost risks of getting things wrong in the real world".

One company that is already benefiting from the centre's expertise is Firth Rixson, a Sheffield-based producer of components for the aerospace, automotive engineering and other advanced engineering industries.

Group Technical Director John Cason says that using the centre's simulation skills has helped the company test and develop their manufacturing processes, maximising their performance and efficiency.

"We see simulation as an integral element of lean projects.

It is a great way to assess the impact of proposed improvements before they are implemented", he explains.

For the initial project, a simulation model has been developed to analyse the performance of a forging cell and to estimate the optimum number of furnaces required to improve system throughputs.

Having improved the overall business performance using lean principles, the company is focusing on individual areas to gain further throughput enhancements.

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