The Best Way to Test ‘What-Ifs' in Automotive Manufacturing

Highlights & takeaways from our recent webinar, now available on‑demand.

Why are 70% of the top OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) using simulation?

Automotive manufacturing leaves little room for guesswork. Aggressive production schedules, supplier variability, and shifting OEM requirements can turn simple production plans into major, unexpected problems.

That’s why top Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) rely on simulation. Discrete-event simulation allows manufacturers to test complex scenarios in a zero-risk digital environment, before committing to costly resources or production line changes on the shop floor.

In our recent webinar, Avoid Bottlenecks and Costly Mistakes with Simulation in Automotive Manufacturing, Minitab’s Senior Simulation Consultant, Andrew Wylie, explained how teams are using discrete event simulation to test ‘what-if’ scenarios, strategize staffing levels, and most importantly meet OEM schedules with confidence.

Watch the webinar on‑demand!

During the webinar, we defined discrete event simulation as building a digital time‑based model of your live shop floor that can test “what‑ifs” safely, before spending a single dollar on resources or manipulating your production line. With simulation, you can identify bottlenecks, validate buffers, test staffing strategies, and stress‑test performance when demand spikes or a critical asset goes down, all inside a risk‑free, digital environment.

“THE BEST SAVINGS AREN’T FOUND; THEY’RE NEVER SPENT.”

At Minitab, we strongly believe discrete event simulation is not just a useful tool, but a core solution for every manufacturer, especially in process improvement. Read our “The Role of Discrete Event Simulation in Process Improvement” blog to learn more.

Still not sold?

If you’re responsible for planning, engineering, operations, or continuous improvement in any stage of the automotive manufacturing process, this session was tailor-made for you. Attendees learned how to...

Run “what‑ifs” in a digital environment.
Avoid friction between teams with shared data and visuals.
Test staffing plans, balance lines, and hit takt time

The webinar also explores a real use case where a Tier 1 supplier built a new manufacturing site in order to meet new OEM demands. They used simulation from day one, not just to validate a plan, but to shape layout, flow, sequencing, and staffing across multiple cells, conveyors, rework/scrap handling, and inbound materials. This resulted in a balanced production line, requiring zero warm-up time, and saving roughly 2 hours of downtime per day.

Simulation didn’t just produce an answer; it showed what wouldn’t work, and why, before a dollar was spent.

Build Your First Simulation

If you want to build a simulation yourself, download a free trial of Simul8 and see how quickly you can build your first simulation to start testing buffer sizes, shift patterns, parallelization, and sequencing with your own data. Leverage our “Getting started with Simul8” video series for a step-by-step walkthrough. Add simulation to your tool set!