A discrete-event simulation and production scheduling system for an FMCG plant manufacturing liquid products

Abstract

Unilever South Africa plans to build a new factory in Boksburg. This factory will manufacture products in the Home Care and Personal Care market categories. It is intended to be a state-ofthe art facility that incorporates best practices from facilities all over the world and produces at very low cost. The purpose of this project is to provide Unilever with a system for effectively planning and managing the new factory. Ideally, it would be possible to adapt the system to other projects in future. Specifically, some mechanism for predicting the number and size of machines needed in the new factory is required. To this end, a discrete-event simulation is being developed to study the proposed investment. This will be used to verify that the proposed factory will be able to meet projected demand. Since production output in this facility will depend heavily on the equipment used as well as the quality of the scheduling, a production scheduling system will also be developed. This scheduling system will utilise various techniques to compile optimal or near-optimal schedules. The generated schedules, along with one from the planning department, can then be run through the simulation to further study and improve both the scheduling system and the simulation. The project will be successful if it can verify the required investment levels.