How to leverage discrete event simulation for social distancing

Manufacturing companies today are challenged with the need to adjust to the new normal and get their employees back to work, but the safety of their workers is paramount. 

How can you get your production lines back up and running, yet adhere to social distancing standards?  Virtual simulation is the key. 

Watch the two-minute video, “How to leverage discrete event simulation for social distancing,” to learn more.

The video was created collaboratively by Michael Walker, Tom Hereford and Matthias Heinicke of Siemens Digital Industries Software.

Video Transcript:

With Siemens Plant Simulation, you can model your current environment and analyze when any two workers come within a defined distance and then flag that intersection with a red circle.  The system will identify where each of these violations occur and keep a running count of violations in any given time frame. 

You can then modify the model to add protective partitions between the workers,  that serve two purposes. 

First, the partition protects adjacent workers from each other. 

Second,  the position of the partition can actually influence the walking path of the workers and reduce the number of possible distance violations.  Each partition can be repositioned to alter the walk path,  in order to reduce safe distance violations.  For this model, Plant Simulation will run simulations to determine to optimal position of each protective partition in order to reduce or eliminate violations.  

If additional modification is required, the system can analyze and suggest adding automation, robotics, moving stations or equipment.

Tecnomatix Plant Simulation enables the simulation, visualization, analysis and optimization of production systems, logistics processes, and Traffic Management. Using Plant Simulation enables you to optimize all areas of plant operation –  all while improving worker safety.  The simulation includes tools such as bottle neck analyzer, Sankey chart, Gantt graphic or an electric power consumption analyzer.  With this insight the model variants are created and compared to find a better production alternative with less bottle necks, higher throughput per hour and reduced work in progress.

Virtual simulation and analysis utilizing Plant Simulation, can be the tool that gets your plant back up and running, while optimizing throughput, and maximizing worker safety through traffic management to give you the competitive advantage.

To explore more about Siemens Tecnomatix software product suite, view our Learning Resources.