Plant Simulation Visualiser

Stations from a class library — Source, SingleProc, Buffer, Assembly, Drain — dragged onto a network and chained with connectors, each one given a processing time, a failure rate and a control script. This is that model: GearboxA and GearboxB running side by side from turning through final assembly.

Plant Simulation answers with hundreds of rows of station statistics, readable alone but not something two people can discuss in front of one screen. What replaces them is a single HTML file, about 4,600 lines, with no external dependencies. Out of that report's flat table, the tool draws a map instead: DOMParser reads each row, D3 lays Line A and Line B out as a flow diagram, with utilisation, buffer fill and the bottleneck flag embedded straight into the same nodes rather than a separate column.

Bottleneck means over 75% utilisation with under 5% waiting; ME1 sits at 78.7%, the rate-limiting step for the whole of Line A. Click Fix and the view zooms straight to that node; hover it and every station it feeds lights up, with the panel underneath spelling out the problem and the fix — duplicate ME1, reconnect the feeders, and Line A's modelled throughput climbs 20 to 35%. Confidence intervals ride along with every number, and work in progress comes from Little's Law, so gearbox variants with different part counts stay comparable.

A short walkthrough of the tool's best features, cut silent for a quick look.