Leif Pehrsson

Reference point-based evolutionary multi-objective optimization for industrial systems simulation

In Multi-objective Optimization the goal is to present a set of Pareto-optimal solutions to the decision maker (DM). One out of these solutions is then chosen according to the DM preferences. Given that the DM has some general idea of what type of solution is preferred, a more efficient optimization could be run. This can be accomplished by letting the optimization algorithm make use of this preference information and guide the search towards better solutions that correspond to the preferences. One example for such kind of algorithms is the Reference point-based NSGA-II algorithm (R-NSGA-II), by which user-specified reference points can be used to guide the search in the objective space and the diversity of the focused Pareto-set can be controlled. In this paper, the applicability of the R-NSGA-II algorithm in solving industrial-scale simulation-based optimization problems is illustrated through a case study for the improvement of a production line.

Industrial cost modelling and multi-objective optimisation for decision support in production systems development

Recent developments in cost modelling, simulation-based multi-objective optimisation, and post-optimality analysis have enabled the integration of costing data and cost estimation into a new methodology for supporting economically sound decision-making in manufacturing enterprises. Within this methodology, the combination of production engineering and financial data with multi-objective optimisation and post-optimality analysis has been proven to provide the essential information to facilitate knowledge-driven decision-making in real-world production systems development. The focus of this paper is to present the incremental cost modelling technique specifically designed for the integration with discrete-event simulation models and multi-objective optimisation within this methodology. A complete example, using the simulation model and data modified from a previous real-world case study, is provided in this paper to illustrate how the methodology and cost modelling are applied for the optimal investment decision support.

Integration of data mining and multi-objective optimisation for decision support in production systems development

Multi-objective optimisation (MOO) is a powerful approach for generating a set of optimal trade-off (Pareto) design alternatives that the decision-maker can evaluate and then choose the most-suitable configuration, based on some high-level strategic information. Nevertheless, in practice, choosing among a large number of solutions on the Pareto front is often a daunting task, if proper analysis and visualisation techniques are not applied. Recent research advancements have shown the advantages of using data mining techniques to automate the post-optimality analysis of Pareto-optimal solutions for engineering design problems. Nonetheless, it is argued that the existing approaches are inadequate for generating high-quality results, when the set of the Pareto solutions is relatively small and the solutions close to the Pareto front have almost the same attributes as the Pareto-optimal solutions, of which both are commonly found in many real-world system problems. The aim of this paper is therefore to propose a distance-based data mining approach for the solution sets generated from simulation-based optimisation, in order to address these issues. Such an integrated data mining and MOO procedure is illustrated with the results of an industrial cost optimisation case study. Particular emphasis is paid to showing how the proposed procedure can be used to assist decision-makers in analysing and visualising the attributes of the design alternatives in different regions of the objective space, so that informed decisions can be made in production systems development.

Aggregated line modeling for simulation and optimization of manufacturing systems

In conceptual analysis of higher level manufacturing systems, for instance when the constraint on system level is sought, it may not be very practical to use detailed simulation models. Developing detailed models on supply chain level or plant wide level may be very time consuming and might also be computationally costly to execute, especially if optimization techniques are to be applied. Aggregation techniques, simplifying a detailed system into fewer objects, can be an effective method to reduce the required computational resources and to shorten the development time. An aggregated model can be used to identify the main system constraints, dimensioning inter-line buffers, and focus development activities on the critical issues from a system performance perspective. In this paper a novel line aggregation technique suitable for manufacturing systems optimization is proposed, analyzed and tested in order to establish a proof of concept while demonstrating the potential of the technique.

Combining augmented reality and simulation-based optimization for decision support in manufacturing

Although the idea of using Augmented Reality and simulation within manufacturing is not a new one, the improvement of hardware enhances the emergence of new areas. For manufacturing organizations, simulation is an important tool used to analyze and understand their manufacturing systems; however, simulation models can be complex. Nonetheless, using Augmented Reality to display the simulation results and analysis can increase the understanding of the model and the modeled system. This paper introduces a decision support system, IDSS-AR, which uses simulation and Augmented Reality to show a simulation model in 3D. The decision support system uses Microsoft HoloLens, which is a head-worn hardware for Augmented Reality. A prototype of IDSS-AR has been evaluated with a simulation model depicting a real manufacturing system on which a bottleneck detection method has been applied. The bottleneck information is shown on the simulation model, increasing the possibility of realizing interactions between the bottlenecks.

Simulation-based multi-objective bottleneck improvement: towards an automated toolset for industry

Manufacturing companies of today are under pressure to run their production most efficiently in order to sustain their competitiveness. Manufacturing systems usually have bottlenecks that impede their performance, and finding the causes of these constraints, or even identifying their locations, is not a straightforward task. SCORE (Simulation-based COnstraint REmoval) is a promising method for detecting and ranking bottlenecks of production systems, that utilizes simulation-based multi-objective optimization (SMO). However, formulating a real-world, large-scale industrial bottleneck analysis problem into a SMO problem using the SCORE-method manually include tedious and error-prone tasks that may prohibit manufacturing companies to benefit from it. This paper presents how the greater part of the manual tasks can be automated by introducing a new, generic way of defining improvements of production systems and illustrates how the simplified application of SCORE can assist manufacturing companies in identifying their production constraints.