Environmental Value Stream Map as a Communicative Model for Discrete-Event Material Flow Simulation

Abstract

In recent years, a lot of attention has been paid to the conceptual modeling phase of a simulation study. Although crucial to the success of the study, there is still little guidance on how to translate the system and objectives definition into a conceptual model. This paper proposes a modified process for a simulation study that sets the communicative model before conceptual modeling, using it as a tool for documenting and representing the system and objectives definition. This process is expected to yield a closer and earlier involvement of the simulation clients to the modeling project, a crucial success factor for a simulation study. Further, Environmental Value Stream Mapping is introduced as method for communicative modeling within discrete-event material flow simulation. It has been designed to meet the specific requirements of this application and was tested within four industrial case studies, one of them presented in this paper.