A model for manufacturing systems simulation with a control dimension

The objective of this article is related to the potential improvement of computer simulation as applied to manufacturing systems. Through our contacts with the operational environment, we have observed that simulation is not used to its full potential. One remark is that existing tools are not adapted to modelling the decision process: they fall short of offering effective integration into the control process of production. Control is usually limited to scheduling and does not lend itself to practical application. In order to enhance the capabilities of computer simulation and make it more responsive to today's industrial needs, we present a way of introducing such control into simulation by pursuing generic and applicable concepts. The core concepts that constitute the framework of our research are a global structure supporting the co-ordination and co-operation relations; a local structure presenting a typology of industrial control adapted to our needs; a control centre, the main concept used to introduce control into simulation. The modelling language used is UML and the model is implemented using the object-oriented language JAVA. An industrial application was carried out in the company Alcatel with the help of the Apollo platform. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.