Optimization of production ramp-up by using a simulation for personnel requirements planning

Today there is a strong innovation competition; this is why the number of product models constantly increases and the reduction of product life cycles causes a more frequent occurrence of production ramp-ups. Therefore, it is inevitable that the existing resources, especially human resources should be used efficiently in order to ensure an ideal ramp-up. Hence, the planning of these resources has become an important challenge also in a ramp-up. This paper presents an approach developed at the Institute of Production Science (wbk) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology to optimize the forecast of personnel requirements during ramp-up. It describes a method providing support to the calculation of the necessary manpower for every single ramp-up phase in order to realize an economic optimum. Therefore, the paper focuses on the simulation of the ramp-up process within its dynamic planning variables, organizational basic conditions, its verification and results.