Simulation of continuous system models in industrial engineering

Abstract

Many industrial engineering and operations research studies in the creation of continuous dynamic models; that is, models consisting of a system of ordinary differential equations. Such models arise frequently in the analysis of economic, inventory and production control systems. The area of Industrial Dynamics (more recently named Systems Dynamics) is specially oriented toward modeling and simulation of these dynamic systems. The purpose of this paper is to discuss briefly some of the current techniques for modeling and simulation of continuous systems and then to devote major attention to describing a number of difficulties encountered in the actual digital simulation. Finally, a number of specific suggestions will be offered to prevent the occurence of most of these problems.