Damien Faric, Merkur Operational Excellence Consultant
With a Master’s degree in Cognitive Science and Ergonomics, Damien has over 15 years’ experience in optimizing work environments for a wide range of manufacturers. Starting with the needs of the operators and of the shop floor, he places ergonomics at the heart of his interventions to improve efficiency and inclusion through universal design (reduced drudgery, disability compensation). He uses simulation as a key tool to co-construct your organization’s optimal vision in a sustainable and effective way.
Denis Fauteux, mechanical engineering technician Merkur
Denis, a mechanical engineering technician trained at Cégep de Sherbrooke, has over 30 years of experience in manufacturing projects, ranging from simple jigs to complex automated processes. 96% of his projects have been completed for Merkur’s clients, including both SMEs and multinationals. The vitality and the people involved in factory production always remain at the heart of his creativity. From the Euclid software in 1992 to Nvidia Omniverse today, Denis is passionate about 3D creation tools. Since 2019, he has specialized in FlexSim software and actively contributes to the development of manufacturing strategies towards predictive digital twins.
You’re ready to expand or redesign your plant to support future growth, but you’re wondering how to go about it efficiently? Would you like to mobilize your teams around this strategic project for your company? Are you wondering about the right tools to support your communication during this change with tools that confirm your production strategy?
At Merkur, we have the solution: 4D simulation of your space. With this approach, you’ll quickly have a faithful representation of your future work environments, dynamically combining 3D and workflow. This centralizes what will make your project a lasting success. Work with us to master your operational and financial challenges and consolidate your business case.
In this article, Operational Excellence Advisor Damien Faric and Industrial Technician Denis Fauteux explain the benefits of 4D simulation for optimizing your project!
READ ALSO : How to Prepare Your Plant Expansion?
What does the creation of a 4D layout actually involve?
Our experts start by gathering all relevant data, whether digital or paper-based, as well as existing production data. We then use this information to build an accurate, functional 4D model, simulating packaging lines, palletizing lines, assembly lines and even entire buildings.
Our approach is distinguished by our ability to focus our efforts where they are needed. We put into 3D only what is essential for your project, avoiding wasting time on superfluous details. Our aim is to provide you with a functional, scalable tool that meets your current and future needs. Making 3D is actually an easy task, but at Merkur we create a dynamic and functional 4D vision that will follow you over the years, meeting your objectives from 5 to 10 years ahead!
What are the advantages of using this approach to meet your specific needs?
1. Convince and involve your stakeholders
4D layout, consolidated with real data from your processes, plays an essential role in engaging your external investors and internal stakeholders, such as operators, partners and production teams. Indeed, a 2D or DWG plan may be inaccessible to many people. With dynamic 3D visualization, you facilitate engagement and understanding, ensuring that every team member sees the project in the same way. This eliminates misunderstandings and restores proportion, enabling everyone to embrace the project with a shared vision.
2. Optimize every square foot
When you’re stuck with a 2D layout that doesn’t allow you to visualize the space properly, 4D layout becomes a major asset. By integrating the temporal dimension, realistic movements and dimensions, it becomes easier to project yourself in order to avoid misunderstanding a layout and workstation organization issue, and to better apprehend the space, particularly for future warehousing.
This visualization also makes it possible to take into account all logistical aspects, such as storage and circulation, thus facilitating planning.
3. Anticipate rather than correct
Adopting a LEAN approach from the outset of your expansion project means that ergonomics and LEAN principles can be integrated right from the start. The 4D layout enables you to analyze traffic flows (carts, pedestrians) and quickly identify the best configurations for your operations, taking into account material flow, strategic machine locations and areas at risk in terms of health and safety. By testing different optimization scenarios, you can demonstrate to your stakeholders that you have taken these factors into account, thus guaranteeing a safe, high-performance working environment.
4. Save time and money
One of the main advantages of our tool is that it saves you time and money on your future work. By establishing a clear phasing of work and fitting out from the outset, you provide your contractors with a concrete and precise vision of the project. This enriches your business case with reliable data, facilitating decision-making and reducing the risk of budget overruns.
5. Integrate advanced 4.0 solutions
By linking 3D layout with advanced tools like FlexSim, you can go beyond simple visualization. This integration enables you to simulate production flows, justify equipment and human resource requirements, identify optimal work organization and optimize plant efficiency. The result is a complete solution for optimizing your operations, ensuring that every aspect of your expansion is considered.
Take plant optimization a step further with Merkur!
At Merkur, our experts can secure the achievement of objectives in an optimal scenario. Immerse your teams in the factory of tomorrow with Merkur. This combination will enable you to:
- Validate production flows
- Validate work-in-progress and material requirements for every position
- Simulate organizational defects
- Optimize the efficiency of your equipment
- Identify the TRG
- Simulate realistic learning curves and ramp-ups
- Make BI
FlexSim is the ideal tool for integrating manufacturing strategies, automation and virtual twins, offering a complete solution for optimizing your operations.
FlexSim, a tool for the future: In the near future, this tool will give our SYNKRO customers a real-time view of what’s happening on the floor, by taking the pulse of your production lines.
Interested? Contact us now to help optimize your plant expansion!
As experts in manufacturing performance, industrial engineering and ergonomics, we can quickly highlight the efficiency, performance and health issues at stake for your teams! 3D is good, but being accompanied by an expert and a partner in industrial engineering is even better!
