Discrete-Event Simulation Software for Modeling Flexibility-Driven Manufacturing Processes

Abstract

In times of globalized markets and rapidly advancing technologies, companies are demanded to produce highly individualized products in shorter life cycles. This requires a certain flexibility in production processes, which, in turn, leads to a higher process complexity. In order to face these challenges, companies need to rely increasingly on the application of software tools for modeling and simulation of production systems. One of the most commonly used tools in the field of digital production planning and control is the discrete-event simulation (DES). A discrete-event simulation software allows production planners to create digital models of production systems and simulate process and material flows. It can be used not only to improve the design of production systems in the early stage of planning, but also to analyze changes in the system’s behavior during operative processes. In this paper, an event-based modeling and simulation software for flexibility-driven manufacturing processes in value-added process chains is developed. The software presented in this paper is aimed particularly at small and medium enterprises (SMEs) with low degree of automation and high product variety. The goal of this approach is to enable the modeling and simulation of manufacturing systems where the required manufacturing operations depend on production workers and vary with each production order. Using the approach described in this paper, a high variety of manufacturing process sequences in a flexible manufacturing system with different layouts, where material flows, worker paths, and part routings are not determined in fixed order, can be modeled, analyzed, and optimized.