This model simulates a set of automated cookie packaging robots. The goal is to find a strategy for picking cookies that will maximize the "Cookie Packaging Success" by allowing the least number of cookies to pass across the entire length of the conveyor without getting picked up and packaged. As the pickers achieve higher utilisation, fewer of them are needed.
Each picker can have its own strategy, and there are several strategies to choose from:
Pick cookies farthest to the left
Pick cookies farthest to the right
Pick closest cookies
Pick cookies farthest away
Pick cookies requiring the least lateral movement
Simulation model
The “what if” questions
The model provides operational answers to multiple “what if” questions. Some of them are listed below:
How many cookies rows on the conveyor are still acceptable? How fast can they run?
What picking strategy should be assigned to each and every picker?
How many pickers are required to pick all cookies before they finally fall at the end of the conveyor?
If there is one picker fewer or out of order, how many cookies will not be picked?
Is there another, better picking strategy to test? For example: The sum of all pickers’ movements is minimised. Maybe a picker should fill up a number of trays concurrently. Then it makes sure its movements (cookie -> tray) are as short as possible. What additional conditions are required here?
Print-friendly
version
Email
to a colleague
