In this project, we seek to integrate a simulation platform with a commercially available manufacturing execution system. A variety of different software tools exist to aid the manufacturing engineer design and reconfigure a manufacturing system. These tools vary in the amount of detail included in the model. At the same time, there is a trade-off between the amount of detail included and the model development time. A detailed simulation model, on the other hand, takes significant time to develop, but can be potentially as accurate a reflection of system behavior as the modeler wants.
Several questions arise.
The purpose of this project is to develop an integrated environment which supports queueing network analysis for rough cut design decisions and detailed simulation modeling for more detailed design and analysis. The rough cut design decisions, of course, constrain the solution space of decisions which one may make with more detailed simulation modeling. And there may be iteration between the two phases. This project uses a manufacturing reference model to develop a generic data structure for manufacturing systems. This data structure then serves as the basis for a queueing network model and for a detailed simulation model.