Sigrid Wenzel

Simulation in Produktion und Logistik

Karlsruhe (TH) soll sich vorrangig der Integration technischer, organisatorischer und personalorientierter Aspekte bei der Modellierung und Simulation von Produktionsund Logistiksystemen widmen. Damit soll aufgezeigt werden, dass Simulationsverfahren in der Lage sind, vielfaltige Aspekte des technischen Managements gleichermasen modellhaft abzubilden und auf der Basis einer multikriteriellen Zielsetzung zu bewerten. Dies hat Auswirkungen auf die Datenhaltung und die Modellierungstechnik, beruhrt aber auch Fragen der Verifikation und Validierung von Simulationsverfahren und der mit ihnen erstellten Modelle. Wie schon bei den vorangegangenen ASIM-Fachtagungen sollen Forschung, Entwicklung und industrielle Nutzung gleichermasen diskutiert werden. Es werden aktuelle Forschungsergebnisse wie auch Best-Practice-Beispiele der Simulation im betrieblichen Alltag vorgestellt. Somit erhalten Teilnehmer ohne Simulationserfahrung einen Uberblick uber Moglichkeiten und Grenzen der Simulation, wahrend erfahrene Anwender die Tagung zum Erfahrungsaustausch nutzen und neue Angebote begutachten konnen.

Classifications and conventions structure the handling of models within the digital factory

Today, the realization of the Digital Factory is the strategic goal of many manufacturing enterprises for the coming years. Up to now, the work has focused on the technical linkage of various planning tools. Now, the goal is to integrate aspects of the Digital Factory into the planning processes. Therefore, it is necessary to define a semantic correlation between the distributed models as well as the associated databases. Furthermore, a suitable presentation method has to be selected which is appropriate for the application within a specific task and for a specific target group.This article presents an approach, which introduces modelling conventions based on a common world view of its users by applying the metaphor of the Electronic Catalogue as well as a well-defined workflow in order to simplify the work with Digital Factory models as a substantial step towards the application of the Digital Factory to meet practical requirements.

A new procedure model for verification and validation in production and logistics simulation

Verification & validation of simulation models and results has been strongly investigated in the context of defence applications. Significantly less substantial work can be found for applications for production and logistics, which is surprising when taking into account the massive impact that wrong or inadequate simulation results can have on strategic and investment-related decisions for large production and logistics systems. The authors have, therefore, founded an expert group for this specific topic in the year 2003, which has analysed the existing material and then developed proposals for definitions, overviews on existing V&V techniques, practical hints for the documentation of the procedural steps within a simulation study, and a specific procedure model for V&V in the context of simulation for production and logistics. The results of this working group are available as a textbook, in German. This paper summarises major results.

The Integration of 3-D Visualization into the Simulation-based Planning Process of Logistics Systems:

The integration of information and communication tech nology into existing business processes effects all areas of a company, including factory planning. The structure of the process of change is based on model-supported pro cesses as well as tools and techniques that are already in use. These include established discrete event simulation tools that have been used in the area of production and logistics planning for several years, and innovative visual ization techniques such as 3-D animation, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Visualization has become very necessary in the planning, realization and operation of a factory because the data for the different target groups within a company, from the operating staff up to management, has to be processed into realizable in formation. The authors, motivated by this initial situation, have placed the conceptual universality of the use of meth ods in the foreground, using distributed architecture and the targeted use of 3-D modeling in logistics planning as an add-on to discrete event simulation. This article intro duces a generally applicable concept for the user-defined mapping of discrete event simulation models onto anima tion models, describes the aspects of realization, and con siders integration into an animation pipeline.

Information acquisition for modelling and simulation of logistics networks

Design, organisation and management of Large Logistics Networks (LLN) usually involve model-based analyses of the networks. The usefulness of such an analysis highly depends on the quality of the input data, which of course should be best possible to capture the real circumstances. In this paper, an advanced procedure model for a structured, goal- and task-oriented information and data acquisition for the model-based analyses of LLN is proposed. This procedure model differs from other approaches by focussing on information acquisition rather than solely on data acquisition, and by employing a consequent verification and validation concept. All steps of the procedure model—Goal Setting, Information Identification, Preparation of Information and Data Collection, Information and Data Collection, Data Recording, Data Structuring, Statistical Data Analysis, Data Usability Test—are described and exemplified for a network of air-freight-flow.

Simulation in Production and Logistics: Trends, Solutions and Applications

By reason of increasing product complexity and diversity of va riants and increasing system and network complexity as well as increasing demands on quality, flexibility, service time, and costs companies need efficient methods and procedure models for planning, redesigning and improving their pro duc tion and logistics systems. The management of logistics networks like supplier, pro duction, distribution, and transportation networks has become an important strategic task due to ongoing globalization of economy, too. Nowadays, simu lation is a well-established model-based analysis method for a lot of appli ca tions in this domain. This paper discusses the trends and solutions in development and research for simulation technology in production and logistics and high lights some current logistics applications.

Towards assisted input and output data analysis in manufacturing simulation: the EDASim approach

Discrete-event simulation has been established as an important methodology in various domains. In particular in the automotive industry, simulation is used to plan, control, and monitor processes including the flow of material and information. Procedure models help to perform simulation studies in a structured way and tools for data preparation or statistical analysis provide assistance in some phases of simulation studies. However, there is no comprehensive data assistance following all phases of such procedure models. In this article, a new approach combining assistance functionalities for input and output data analysis is presented. The developed tool - EDASim - focuses on supporting the user in selection, validation, and preparation of input data as well as to assist the analysis of output data. The proposed methods have been implemented and initial evaluations of the concepts have led to promising feedback from practitioners.

Definition und Modellierung von Systemlasten für die Simulation logistischer Systeme

Die Verflechtung von Warenstromen und die gleichzeitig verstarkte Kollaboration der an den Planungs- und Bewirtschaftungsprozessen logistischer Systeme beteiligten Partner erfordern eine immer umfassendere Beschreibung, Gestaltung und Analyse dieser Systeme. Eine effiziente Planung und Verbesserung der Beschaffungs-, Produktions- und Distributionsprozesse in einer Wertschopfungskette nach Leistungs-, Kosten- und Nutzengesichtspunkten ist mit den gewachsenen Anspruchen an Planungsgenauigkeit und -effizienz nur mit geeigneten Methoden und Werkzeugen moglich. Entscheidende Rollen nehmen in diesem Zusammenhang die Modellbildung und die ereignisdiskrete Simulation ein.

Die Anwendung von Virtual Reality bei Telerobotik

Die Fernsteuerung von Robotern zur Durchfuhrung von Experimenten in einem Weltraumlabor stellt ein von der Bedienung her schwieriges Aufgabenfeld dar, da der Fachwissenschaftler seine Experimente ohne Kenntnisse der Roboterkinematik nicht selbst ausfuhren kann, sondern auf die Hilfe eines Spezialisten angewiesen ist. Aus diesem Grund werden im Rahmen des Forschungsvorhabens VITAL die prinzipiellen Einsatzmoglichkeiten von Virtual Reality bei der Gestaltung von Mensch-Maschine-Schnittstellen im Hinblick auf eine intuitive Definition und Steuerung von Experimenten untersucht, um eine einfache und sichere Handhabung der verwendeten Roboter zu gewahrleisten. Der vorliegende Beitrag beschreibt die aktuellen Arbeiten des vom Land Nordrhein-Westfalen und von der DARA geforderten Projektes.

A technical concept for plant engineering by simulation-based and logistic-integrated project management

Customized planning, engineering and build-up of factory plants are very complex tasks, where project management contains lots of risks and uncertainties. Existing simulation techniques could help massively to evaluate these uncertainties and achieve improved and at least more robust plans during project management, but are typically not applied in industry, especially at SMEs (small and medium-sized enterprises). This paper presents some results of the joint research project simject of the Universities of Paderborn and Kassel, which aims at the development of a demonstrator for a simulation-based and logistic-integrated project planning and scheduling. Based on the researched state-of-the-art, requirements and a planning process are derived and described, as well as a draft of the current technical infrastructure of the intended modular prototype. First plug-ins for project simulation and multi-project optimization are implemented and already show possible benefits for the project management process.