Background
A major food manufacturer found that its snapshot-based analysis couldn't show how its supply chain behaved over time. It needed to see the system run, not just single points.
The Solution
SDI partnered with General Mills to create a dynamic simulation that could run six months of supply chain data in minutes, providing a "video" view of operations instead of static snapshots.
The Story
Much of the value came from building the model. As one executive noted, the process "forced a certain diligence" in understanding system interconnections that they had never achieved before. Once built, the model ran fast enough that they could explore many more alternatives.
Industry Recognition
Featured in IIE Magazine (June 2001 IIE Solutions) highlighting the transformation from "snapshot" to "video" analysis capabilities:
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the simulation of a complex supply chain must be worth a million. That's one of the conclusions General Mills drew after the company enhanced its conventional methods of analyzing supply chain cost savings with a simulation-based process offered through Simulation Dynamics.
The investment in Simulation Dynamics software has taken the guesswork out of analyzing supply chain scenarios and empowered General Mills with a more productive supply chain.
Project Results
The team could see its supply chain run over time instead of in snapshots, and get answers much faster.
"Instead of taking a snapshot, this is more like a video. It's more than just a point solution. Your ability to actually see the activity in action and plot out the results allows you to understand impacts much better while the supply chain is running. We can run six months of supply chain data in a matter of minutes." - Mike Geddis, Director of Engineering, General Mills
"What we really found to be very powerful was the actual building of the model. It forced a certain diligence in terms of saying, if we change the system here this happens over here. We had not gone to that level of understanding the interconnections of our systems before."
"This definitely saves us time. It gives the ability to let the tools follow our questions and follow them rapidly, so once we have the model constructed, we can get results in as little as 15 minutes. There's no question we will explore substantially more alternatives than we would have if this were a more laborious process like before. As a result, we end up with much more thorough and novel solutions."
Strategic Understanding Transformation
Before Simulation Study: "If anyone here tells you they understand our supply chain, they are lying!" - Customer executive
After Model Development: Building the model with us helped supply chain leaders see and understand how their network behaved. The database and simulation tools used to build that model have since been completely reimplemented — the "video view" now runs at speeds that were not possible in 2001.
Strategic Assessment
These articles on the self-guided tour cover the strategic questions behind this case:
- Supply Chain Structure
Understanding complex network dynamics and echelon impacts through dynamic rather than static analysis methods. - Inventory Deployment
Optimizing deployment strategies across the network using "video view" of operations instead of snapshots. - Production Capacity
Managing demand variability and capacity constraints with 15-minute scenario analysis capability.