Bottler Glass Co. — plant operations

The problem, in one paragraph

for anyone who has not worked in glass

A glass furnace cannot be switched off. Each one here melts around 160 to 280 tonnes a day whether anyone wants the glass or not, and when a bottle line stops, the melted glass keeps coming and goes down a chute to be melted again. Bottler Glass Co. is an invented company with four plants, eight furnaces and eighteen lines, built so that every line, furnace and plant can be watched from one program, and every stopped hour can be seen in tonnes and dollars. Everything here is made up, and nothing here controls a real plant.

An illustration using one real furnace's own numbers: Melbourne F1, which makes amber glass, and the two lines it feeds. Stop a line and see where its glass goes.

Melbourne F1263 t/daymelting, whatever the lines do

Line 1takes 130 t/day when running
Line 2takes 130 t/day when running

Down the chute0.1 t/hour263 t/day melted, less 260 taken by the running lines, shared over 24 hours

Both lines are drawing, so the furnace and the lines are in step and the chute is nearly quiet.

I have not: show me the process in orderGlass made step by step, with every term explained.Show me what the model found and who owns itThe findings it raised, their owners and what was done.

Generating four months of plant history…

There is no server. The plant is simulated in this tab, from a seed, so the same seed replays the same four months for everyone — which is what lets the numbers be argued with rather than taken on trust.