Hayward Tyler Use WITNESS to Create 'Centre of Excellence'

Hayward Tyler's demolition phase nears completion just as we start the exciting phase of building detail into our WITNESS Simulation 'Centre of Excellence' 3D Model, and start to understand the benefits the model brings to our business. Already we have a clear understanding of product flow, takt-times, lead-times, future CAPEX expenditure requirements, headcount and skills profiles, work in progress levels and most important of all – revenue forecasting; to name just some of the business benefits.

The key advantage is that our WITNESS model in essence allows Hayward Tyler to build a visual MRP system from scratch that is clean of any previous corrupt historical data. The visual and business impact of moving from our 2D to 3D model has been fantastic as the 3D model supports our Centre of Excellence plans in a visually-appealing way.

There is a temptation to get carried away when building our models, however we must remember this is not a toy, but a business improvement tool which more than holds its own. As stated before, Lanner’s WITNESS software is a truly out-of-the-box solution that has made an immediate positive business impact on Hayward Tyler. We are only just scratching the surface of our WITNESS model’s capabilities.

Completion of the demolition phase:

Latest image of Hayward Tyler’s 3D model:

Martin Clocherty – Manufacturing Systems Director at Hayward Tyler

Virtual Reality VR

The building of a 3D-CAD Model of our entire facility has given us a tool to plan and trial layouts in a cost-effective way, even to the point of carrying out time and motion studies, this CAD model then feeds into the WITNESS model.

It enables us to walk through the processes and the facility in 3D and Augmented Reality, using head mounted displays. We are currently planning a mega event where everyone will be invited to put on the 3D goggles and walk through the model, as we want the future factory layout and process flow approved and understood by all departments.

The model is an effective communication tool not only for us, but also our customers. The possibilities to model processes are almost limitless but we want to input just enough detail to get useful data and learning out of it. We have built custom moving tugs and trolleys, lifting machinery and crane movements in order to understand utilisation and support CAPEX decisions.

One lesson learnt so far is making sure that the 2D model is built with the 3D VR in mind, in order to make the transition as easy as possible.

Oliver Buhlinger – Manufacturing Engineer at Hayward Tyler