Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to describe a Generalized Manufacturing Simulator (GEMS) which can be used in the analysis of complex discrete part manufacturing systems. GEMS is a FORTRAN based analysis program which has been developed to study assembly line or job shop manufacturing environments. However, the current capabilities of GEMS enable a user to model a wide range of industrial, social, and operational problems. Conceptualization of manufacturing environments to the GEMS program is executed via a box/node arc network representation of the manufacturing system. GEMS is an activity-on box (node) simulation program composed of standardized simulation input via specialized boxes and arcs. A box (node)/arc structure can be developed to represent complex material flow patterns, probabilistics branching, routing based on attribute values, resource constraints, cost considerations, and complex queueing characteristics. GEMS can be used to study product flow rates, manufacturing capabilities, and queueing phenomena; assess in-process inventories and raw material storage requirements; determine the effects of alternate sequencing and scheduling rules; different routing and material handling schemes; and the impact of limited resources and increased/decreased production rates. An analysis package has been constructed which normally requires only a representation of the simulated system in terms of a network diagram, and transmission of this diagram to the GEMS program structure through FORTRAN NAMELIST data inputs.
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