Patent ID: 7941301

Claim:
A method for modelling a complex system, comprising the steps of: by an input apparatus and computer-based, data-processing system, receiving, processing and transferring data and/or product units in event chains of the complex system to the internal memory of the computer-based, data-processing system, by a computer-based, data-processing system, modelling the complex system on a lowermost description level by the use of a limited set of basic types for representation of the units and for description of their interaction, wherein each basic type processes data, said data representing values of characteristics of the mentioned units, and wherein this set of basic types comprises: a basic type “transfer” which represents a transfer of units, leads through data for characterising these units, and comprises one input as well as one output, a basic type “merge” which represents a combining of units, links data for characterising these units, to one another, and comprises two inputs as well as one output, a basic type “split” which represents a dividing up of units, determines data for characterising units which result from dividing-up, from data of a unit to be divided up, and comprises one input as well as two outputs, and wherein in each case inputs serve for receiving data into the respective basic type and outputs serve for transferring data out of the respective basic type, forming computer-based, data-processing models of the complex system by way of creating a quantity of basic types and linking inputs and outputs of these basic types; and by the visualisation apparatus, used by a user, representing a graphical or textual representation of the basic types, which represent the model of the complex system.