Interfacing simulation with costing software to drive the transformation from prototype manufacturing to high volume manufacturing

Often companies are faced with the situation of 'ramping-up' production of a new product. Although this may seem like it should be a simple task, making the transition from a manufacturing environment that makes small volumes of some product well to an environment that must make large volumes well entails many decisions regarding equipment, scheduling and control and manufacturing philosophy. Many factors influence these decisions, including the need to meet production volume goals and costs associated with achieving these goals. This paper will discuss how discrete event simulation data can be interfaced with a costing software package to guide manufacturing line design decisions in a company transitioning from small volume, job-shop like manufacturing of a product to larger production run volume manufacturing.