FUJIFILM Imaging Colorants projected 338% more throughput using Simul8 simulation.
Industry
Products Used
A demand surge with nowhere to go.
FUJIFILM produces inkjet inks and pigments shipped in products worldwide. When customers signaled demand would grow 400% over five years, the packaging line was not built for it. The facility ran one container at a time on a fixed schedule, and testing fixes on the live line was not viable.
Physical trials would have been costly and slow, and the team could still have backed the wrong solution. FUJIFILM needed to test every option against a validated model of their operation before committing capital. That meant building a digital twin of the entire packaging line first.
Highlights
- Challenge: FUJIFILM needed 400% more output with no safe way to test what would get them there.
- Solution: Simul8 modeled every stage of the packaging operation so five scenarios could be tested before any capital was committed.
- Results: One extra operator and one equipment upgrade projected a 338% throughput increase and the capital plan moved straight into engineering.
338%
projected throughput increase from Simul8 simulation.
400%
demand increase modeled before capital was spent.
29%
improvement in total asset utilization.
5
improvement scenarios tested before a decision was made.
What the simulation revealed about the line.
FUJIFILM built a digital model of their entire packaging line in Simul8, capturing every stage from clean-room filling to palletizing. Validated against real output in the first session, it gave the team a reliable baseline to test changes without touching any machine.
Five improvement scenarios ran in parallel: shift patterns, setup times, equipment upgrades, and staffing changes were all tested at once. Simul8 surfaced a finding nobody expected. The binding constraint was operator availability, not equipment. One extra person and one upgrade projected 338% more throughput.
“Simul8 gave us the ability to evaluate a wide berth of process improvement options, all with potentially large financial or engineering implications, without spending any significant money or time to investigate.”
Eric Kurtz
Project Manager, FUJIFILM Imaging Colorants
From model to approved capital plan.
The simulation produced a data-backed recommendation before any capital was committed. The team had a 338% projected throughput increase, a 29% asset utilization gain, and a quantified equipment comparison. The investment case moved straight into engineering.
FUJIFILM later extended the Simul8 methodology across engineering, R&D, and manufacturing operations company-wide. What started as a packaging capacity problem became a new standard for how the business validates and plans capital investments.
See what Simul8 can do for your operation.
Book a Simul8 demo with one of our specialists and learn how your organization can increase throughput, optimize processes and reduce costs with simulation.