Initial Analysis

At Reddwerks, our operations research team analyzes customer submitted data to develop theories about your current system's behaviors. We examine and analyze your facility's detailed, historical information (from weeks to years), such as SKUs, orders, stores, and rates. Based on this analysis, we propose hypotheses to improve your facility's functionality. 

Manipulate Data

The accuracy of any theory depends on the accuracy of the data. Our operations research team reviews your data, locating and cleaning entry errors, fixing issues, and filtering data. Manipulating the data allows us to use the most accurate input for our models, which provides you with the most accurate results. 

Create Data

If sufficient data is lacking, our operations research team works with you to create data. For example, if your current facility can only handle 50,000 orders a day, but you want a model for a new facility that can process 100,000 orders a day, our team can build models for the new facility based on your current data.  

We can also create data to analyze expected changes in your facility over time. Multiple years of a proposed facility can be modeled to ensure a design covers special conditions that would occur over time.

Detailed Analysis of Assumptions

The Reddwerks operations research team crafts profiles that identify key underlying assumptions affecting your business. From these profiles, our team will identify or confirm problem areas.  

Effective, Tailored Approach

Our team custom tailors your model based on the particular factors needed to evaluate your facility. We examine which parameters to evaluate, algorithms to employ, and time frames to consider. By customizing your model, and not relying on a standard set of variables, we can address the particular issues impacting your facility. 

Our operations research team doesn't work with averages, in which peaks and lows can be hidden. Instead, they deliberately look for outliers and make sure that a ten-minute peak doesn't throttle your facility for hours.

More importantly, these models can account for physical factors, such as bay size or average worker walk speed. Models are not passive. Our team continually reviews the models, adjusting hypotheses and altering criteria to refine the results. 

Appropriate Models

The operations research team may create multiple models for your facility. For example, the team may decide to create a model that only evalutates picking. These models may be integrated for an accurate and smooth flow of information across the facility. 

Model Conclusions and Recommendations

Once our team has assessed your model, we not only give you conclusions, but we also give you a plan to improve the desired goals with an expected improvement metric. 

Control the Scenario

One form of model offered by our operations research team is simulation. Simulation allows you to examine a system over time given a set of conditions. These models let you review the status of parameters at any moment, including their beginning and ending. More importantly, you can alter the conditions at any point to create and examine multiple scenarios and different options. 

Confidence in the Simulation

Our operations research team verifies each component by using data that has been processed on site with known results. We then run the data to verify the simulation's results match actual results. After verifying each component of the simulation, we run the end-to-end simulation, again comparing the simulation's results to the actual results. 

Once the simulation model itself is verified, the simulation can run various scenarios to optimize your distribution center and address problem areas. 

Using historical data and comprehensive testing, we can provide accurate results for simulations spanning over 20 years or more.

Clear Results

Simulation results are presented to you with supporting tables, detailed animation of the simulation, and the outcome of each scenario.