Croissant Bakery Production Simulation

A discrete-event simulation model of a small croissant bakery that models the complete croissant production process during a single 8-hour shift, including dough preparation, mixing, lamination, shaping, proofing, baking, resource allocation, and machine failures. The simulation was implemented in C++20 using the SIMLIB simulation library.

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Project Overview

The goal of this project is to analyze the production workflow of a small bakery and identify bottlenecks, resource limitations, and opportunities for increasing production efficiency.

The simulation models:

• Dough batch generation
• Mixing process
• Dough resting periods
• Lamination
• Shaping
• Proofing
• Baking
• Baker workload distribution
• Machine utilization
• Machine failures and repairs

The model was designed to closely resemble a real-world bakery production process based on consultations with an experienced baker and publicly available production data.

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Production Process

The production workflow consists of the following stages:

Dough Preparation
        ↓
      Mixing
        ↓
 Dough Resting #1
        ↓
    Lamination
        ↓
 Dough Resting #2
        ↓
     Shaping
        ↓
     Proofing
        ↓
      Baking
        ↓
     Cooling
        ↓
 Finished Croissants

The bakery operates with:

• 3 bakers
• 1 mixer
• 1 laminating machine
• 1 shaping machine
• Proofing chamber
• Oven
• Refrigeration storage

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Simulation Architecture

The simulator consists of:

• Dough batch generator
• Dough process entities
• Tray process entities
• Bakers modeled as resources
• Machines modeled as facilities
• Storage capacities
• Machine failure generators
• Repair processes

Each dough batch moves through the production chain until it is converted into trays containing shaped croissants.

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Technologies

• C++20
• SIMLIB
• GNU Make
• g++

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Project Structure

.
├── src/                    Source code implementation files
├── include/                Header files for the simulation components
├── docs/                   LaTeX documentation, diagrams and technical report
├── sim/                    Experiment parameter configuration and run script
├── lib/                    External dependencies (SIMLIB)
├── Makefile                Build configuration and compilation rules
└── README.md               Project documentation

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Building the Project

Compile the simulation:

make

Run the simulation with default parameters:

make run

Or execute manually:

./simulation

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Custom Configuration

Simulation parameters can be loaded from a CSV file:

./simulation parameters.csv

CSV format:

PARAMETER_NAME;VALUE

Example:

TRVANIE_SIMULACIE;480
DOBA_GENEROVANIA_NOVYCH_CIEST;75
INTERVAL_NOVEHO_CESTA;15
POCET_KUSOV_Z_JEDNEHO_CESTA;300

When a configuration file is supplied, its values override the defaults defined in parameters.hpp.

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Experiments

Several experiments were performed to validate the model and evaluate production efficiency.

Experiment 1 — Production Time Analysis

Measured the production time of a single dough batch.

Results:

• Average production time: ~275 minutes
• Minimum: ~249 minutes
• Maximum: ~292 minutes

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Experiment 2 — Bottleneck Identification

Objective:

• Identify the weakest point in the production line.

Result:

The shaping machine was identified as the primary bottleneck.

• Average waiting time: ~70 minutes
• Maximum waiting time: ~76 minutes

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Experiment 3 — Resource Reduction

Objective:

• Determine whether certain resources can be reduced without affecting output.

Resources successfully reduced:

• Refrigerator capacity
• Proofing chamber capacity
• Oven capacity
• Number of trays

Result:

Production remained unchanged.

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Experiment 4 — Production Scaling

Objective:

• Double production output.

Changes:

• Double number of bakers
• Double machine count
• Increase oven capacity
• Increase tray count

Result:

Production doubled from approximately 1500 to 3000 croissants per shift.

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Experiment 5 — Mixer Failure

Simulated:

• Random mixer breakdown
• Repair duration ≈ 60 minutes

Result:

Production decreased due to discarded dough batches.

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Experiment 6 — Laminator Failure

Simulated:

• Random laminator breakdown
• Repair duration ≈ 45 minutes

Result:

No significant impact on final production.

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Experiment 7 — Shaping Machine Failure

Simulated:

• Random shaping machine breakdown
• Repair duration ≈ 25 minutes

Result:

Largest production loss among all tested failures.

• Significant reduction in completed trays
• Approximately 400 fewer croissants produced

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Key Findings

• The shaping machine is the primary production bottleneck.
• Production of approximately 1500 croissants per shift is achievable with the baseline configuration.
• Several resources can be reduced without affecting output.
• Production can be doubled through proportional scaling of workers and equipment.
• Failures of the shaping machine have the most severe impact on production.

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License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the LICENSE file for details.