PACE Website

Pace demonstration model of a case study of the BARC company, Würzburg.

The demo model on hand simulates the control flow of order processing from the receipt of an order to delivery in a company with about 100 employees, "Carbon Bike GmbH," which produces light-weight bicycle frames of high quality. Frames of two different types are produced which can be ordered either by phone during business hours from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. or round-the-clock by e-mail. Orders by e-mail which arrive outside business hours are processed the following day.

The sales department accepts the orders and provides for their execution. The following activities are immediately carried out after receipt of an order:

• The order is handed over to the business department KAB, which produces the invoice document.
• An order confirmation is sent to the customer.
• If requested by the customer in the order, an order for a drinking bottle holder is sent to an associated vendor.
• An internal order for the production of the ordered frames is sent to the production department.
• The order is put into the job queue.

At first the flash video shows the execution with high speed in the so-called batch simulation mode. It then changes to animation mode and one sees the single steps in the two displayed net windows. If you want to work with the model yourself and study its operation in more detail, you can request a free installation of the work version of the model at the "Pace demo systems" menu item. Customers of IBE GmbH can access the development version of the models by selecting the "Support for our customers" menu point.

When an order exits the job queue, the staff first checks in the warehouse whether the ordered number of both frames is available. If this is the case, then the frames are taken from the warehouse to the shipping department, packed there and then delivered. Otherwise personnel must check cyclically every 30 minutes whether the number of frames missing for the fulfillment of the order has been manufactured in the interim and taken to the warehouse.

The frames are manufactured in a series of production steps. At first the pipes are cut, then joined together, smoothed/polished and finally painted. Each of these single steps needs a different production time, which is why buffers were provided between the production steps. In addition, every production step can consist of several similar units working in parallel.

The completed frames are collected by type, and when a specified number are accumulated, transported to the warehouse.