Walkers Snack Foods Ltd Simulation Software Case Study

Simulation Modelling, performed by Coventry-based Production Modelling, has been a major factor in both the successful delivery, and the on-going management, of an extended warehouse and distribution premises for Walkers Snack Foods Ltd.

The ever expanding snack food market, and the capability to gain an increasing portion of this market, in part due to some high profile marketing, has seen Walkers Snack Foods Ltd enjoy major business growth for the past few years. However, this growth has also meant that major new demands have been placed on its UK operations. To deal with these new demands, the company - which is now joined with the global giant PepsiCo Inc - has performed a considerable programme of upgrading and extension of manufacturing and distribution facilities. One of the recently completed major projects in this programme, an essential element in the business's remodelling of its distribution capabilities, has delivered an enormous warehouse extension at Walkers' Leicester based factory and warehousing facility.

Adding storage was just one of the necessities for this development. The project also had to enable operational process improvements in terms of picking efficiency and throughput, and so allow the output capability of the whole Leicester site to keep up with requirements. Therefore, in order to ensure that the end design solution was able to meet these requirements, Walkers, and their project partner, the warehouse solution provider Swisslog, decided to undertake a simulation modelling exercise, and approached the UK simulation software specialists, Production Modelling. As a result, not only has the modelling helped to prove the design concept, it has also enabled a detailed process analysis that has meant direct project savings. Additionally, a detailed simulation software generated model has also been developed that is currently being utilised by Walkers as an ongoing operational management and training tool.