How Does Roll Size Optimisation Work?

What we need from you is order data from several months of the past, and of course your current roll sizes. PC Topp customers can take a shortcut: We can find all required data in your production statistics; all you need to tell us is the time period to look at.

We recommend a period of about three months, but are also able to work on a full year, or several sections of a year to allow for seasonal influences.

(For more details about the data required for our analysis see Data Required by Roll Size Optimisation.)

Starting Point: Our Results Using Your Current Roll Sizes

We always start by running our algorithm on your orders using the current set of roll sizes. This gives us a reference to compare all future results with.

That result will almost certainly be different (and usually better) than what you actually find in your statistics: While we try to approach the scheduling process as realistically as possible, we will never be able to accurately simulate the situation your planner was in when he had to schedule those orders.

Our selection of orders will thus be different from his, and in addition we assume that all roll sizes are actually in stock which in reality is not always the case. (For further details please refer to Simplifications of the Roll Size Optimisation.)

But Roll Size Optimisation (RSO) results are based on realistic schedules for the given orders and roll sizes. The effect of a different set of roll sizes on trim and productivity seen in RSO's results will very likely occur in real life planning in a similar way.

The Optimisation Process

Next, we ask the software the questions you are asking. This can be done interactively, with you asking new questions after seeing the reaction to a change you made.

For example, you might want to find out what will happen if you change from your previous roll sizes to a new set of roll sizes, adding or removing roll sizes to see how this affects the result.

Or you can ask what the ideal roll sizes would be for your orders, if you were to use three, four or any other number of sizes. (You can set the minimum desirable width. If the optimisation process yields odd roll sizes that may not be available on the market, a re-run with those sizes manually adjusted to the nearest "normal" roll size is done.)

Or you could compare productivity and trim on a new wider machine, and find out what the best roll sizes would be under the new conditions.

Roll Size Optimisation in Action

If you would like to see in practice how RSO works you can view examples of several scenarios and their results.