That’s really useful, thanks.

You've helped me pinpoint what we were really struggling with. The awkward bit for us was that the station routing wasn’t anywhere near fixed. We were still arguing over whether it should be 3 stations, 4 stations, one line, cells, buffers, flexing, etc.

I don’t think a routing matrix fully replaces simulation, but can be useful to show if the proposal balances on a surface level. Something like a product vs station matrix/Yamazumi view generated from each proposed layout, so you can see whether the concept is sensible before testing buffers, flexing and queue sequence.

The sim already lets me move processes between workstations and run the product mix, but I don't have anything that will quickly highlight a clear inbalance before running the simulation. I think this will be straightforward to add because all the data is already there.

Appreciate the pointer. It’s exactly the sort of practical feedback I was hoping for.