The Data Centric Architecture of a Factory Digital Twin
Figure 5-4 : Schedule after inserting two demands for product Prod3 .
The problem at hand is the introduction of a new third product , Prod3 . Prod3 differs in that the relative rate of its precursor material is slower than the final stage . This results in a loss of capacity as the main equipment R1 is idled while awaiting the production of Prec3 in T1 . As Figure 5-4 shows , inserting two demands for Prod3 results in two significant periods of idle time on R1 , reducing the overall capacity of the plant .
The imbalance between the two stages for the new product can be offset by modifying the plant to add a second parallel equipment ( T2 ) to increase precursor capacity . This illustrates the ability of the FDT to model process modifications and accurately predict the resulting value of those modifications by producing detailed schedules . Figure 5-5 shows the demand scenario from Figure 5-4 , but with the addition of a second precursor equipment , T2 .
Figure 5-5 : The addition of a second precursor equipment T2 .
The second precursor equipment provides more than sufficient capacity to feed the main step with the result being that R1 is fully utilized . This reduces the make span of the three-month
112 February 2025