Enterprise Dynamics is not only distinguished as one of the most efficient simulation platforms. As provider of system solutions INCONTROL meets user’s individual requirements of variable application areas with a wide range of branch specific libraries.

ED Logistics, the flagship of the ED product portfolio for the simulation of all kinds of material handling, transportation and production processes comes with a well balanced set of flexible atoms, the so called Logistics Library, which extend a comprehensive pool of components. Users draw on plentiful resources to model the full spectrum from basic modeling up to ambitious custom built solutions. Interfaces to ease data management and various predefined result components are just some of the highlights of ED Logistics.

Some of the many simulation objects in ED Logistics:

• Automated Storage and Retrieval System (AS/RS)
• Advanced Transporter (forklift)
• Conveyors (accumulating, non-accumulating, straight, curved)
• Transfer Car
• Advanced Vertical Articulated Robot (AVAR)
• Ground Storage

These objects are developed by specialists in both simulation and material handling, transportation and production giving you a head start in modeling your specific environment. The parameters and rules you deal with in real-life are also used in the simulation models so you translate design and reality more easily.

ED Logistics also gives you a realistic 3D visualization making it easier to validate and present your simulation models.



Manufacturing
In flow line production, the production equipment is laid out in the production sequence. The products usually follow the same route through the system. This type of system is frequently very sensitive to equipment breakdowns, because if one process stops, this stops the entire line. Having stock between each process can reduce this sensitivity. Flow line systems are most useful for medium to long production runs.

Are you busy with questions like the following?

• How many products leave the factory weekly?
• Are more buffers needed?
• What about throughput times?
• Where are bottlenecks?

With ED Logistics you build your models easily. Experiments are handled with the Experiment Wizard and you get insight and solutions which help you to manage your factory.

Warehousing
The process of planning and operating automated warehouses is characterized by permanently alternating operating requirements. Varied layouts and strategies should already be considered and weighed in the storage planning stages. Foreseeable scenarios are implicated into design and strategies in order to hedge the investment against changing business conditions. Declining life cycle of products enhance the necessity to reorganize existing warehouse structures during the useful live.

Simulation is an established technology to verify different storage conceptions, without putting them into reality immediately. Autonomous from day-to-day business it is possible to grow resolutions with a high level of maturity - long before the day of the ground-breaking ceremony. Increasing frequency of corporate planning makes high demands on flexibility, efficiency and user friendliness of the used planning software.

ED Logistics advantages by simulating your warehouse:

• Modular design encourages rapid modelling
• storage planning means layout planning
• development and verification of efficient operation strategies and rules

Logistics
It is often difficult to determine the capacity of a transport system consisting of a number of different conveyors. Simple calculation is mostly impossible due to parameters such as

• the priority rules for side conveyors,
• process times,
• different speeds and
• whether or not the conveyors can accumulate.

Nevertheless, no company embarking on an expansion plan wants to be surprised by the subsequent failure of a transport system to meet the demands on it. This is where simulation turns out to be a very helpful tool; it provides the future user with the assurance that the investment made will actually yield the expected performance.

In addition ED Logistics comes with a comprehensive 2D and 3D visualization environment with which you can present your model to peers and non-technical people.

Automation
A factory with a bespoke design department is complex to manage because each order consists of a separate project with a unique design and estimated cycle times. The accurate estimation of throughput times is made difficult by orders of different quantities in the factory and different delivery dates. If the delivery does not occur at the planned date, penalty clauses are often applied.

In addition, although the processes are fully automated, it has not been possible to synchronize them precisely; furthermore robots or machines are not completely trouble-free.

By simulating the order schedule, it is possible to discover whether agreed delivery dates can be met, and to identify where bottlenecks will appear, and when overtime might be required. Moreover, it is possible to experiment with changing priorities, different order release patterns and also to check the feasibility of expressing an urgent order.