Modelling and simulation of integrated operations and information systems in manufacturing

This paper presents a novel method to determine the relative impact on logical interactions and interrelationships between operations and information systems within a manufacturing environment by formulating an integrated model, in which both operational function and information processing function are modelled and simulated to predict system behaviour and to obtain an optimal solution that maximises system performances. To achieve this, modelling and simulation of a flexible printed circuit board assembly (PCBA) system has been implemented. The research has shown that applying this approach is valuable for analysing a wide range of manufacturing systems (CIM, FMS, dynamic process control systems, etc.).