How General Motors used simulators to save time and money creating value for our customers

This case study demonstrates how General Motors benefited by constructing special purpose simulators using ARENA Templates to rapidly model manufacturing systems common in the Automotive Industry. We use real manufacturing examples to demonstrate the enormous flexibility of these simulators while discussing the principles integral to their development. The simulators discussed here reduced model creation time from weeks to hours. Moreover, they eliminated the need for expert simulation engineers while at the same time dramatically improving modeling accuracy. In fact, it became common practice for engineers without any prior simulation experience to be trained and accurately constructing complex Body Shop models within a couple of weeks. For the first time, simulation analysis could be used in real time throughout the engineering development process. Hence, more effort was dedicated to analysis and improving system designs rather than constructing models.