Software Selection

[miketend]

I need to simulate a manufacturing system consisting of a a bridge crane system with multiple cranes sharing a travel space to handle large loads. I am considering using Witness, AutoMod or Simul8 for the same.

Are there any pros and cons that anyone might be able to give me for each of these software in terms of the above application or point me in the right direction with comparitive parameters that I should consider.

[ewilliams]

First, I would counsel against SIMUL8 for this particular purpose; it has many virtues but material handling in general is not its long strong suit. To my knowledge, WITNESS does not have a construct specifically intended for bridge cranes (let alone competing ones in one bay), although the WITNESS user forum does have two examples of different ways to model a single crane. I'll defer the AutoMod portion of your question to a fellow forum member more competent in AutoMod than I am. ProModel, although not in your original question, does have a construct specifically intended for bridge cranes, and this construct does include provision for modeling competition between the cranes.

[kvasudevan]

I agree with Mr.Williams... using Simul8 is not advisable. Between the two other choices, Witness and AutoMod I suggest you consider the following.
1) How important is the crane motion
- If you are looking for intrecacies in crane motion or if you suspect that the crane itself is a probable system bottleneck, then AutoMod would be the way to go
- However on the other hand if the crane is just a material handler that plays only a moderatley significant role in the system and can be modeled using times, rather than physical dimensions, then I would go with Witness
2) How many cranes? - Complex interaction?
-If the system has just one crane modeling the crane is relatively easy. Using AutoMod then becomes less complex, because most of the Crane Handling functions are built in to the Bridge Crane System.
-If you are using two cranes, AutoMod does not provide collision avoidance, which means the graphics will now look ugly.
-In Witness, even though you dont model collision avoidance, the collisions will not be noticed explicitly. If the collision avoidance itself does not play a major role in determining KPIs then witness might be sufficient.

So In short, AutoMod is ideal but would involve a large development effort in case of multiple cranes. Witness could be sufficient but would lack graphics and would have a abstracted crane system

[mfkhan]

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Regards
Faisal