Autor: Georg Middelberg

Very often material flows within or between companies seem to behave in an irregular manner, which can cause inventory levels to become unpredictable and poorly manageable. This behaviour can especially be observed at high utilisation ratios of means of production or logistics. Commonly, it is assumed to be caused by small disturbances, which can never be completely excluded in practice. For that reason often large efforts are made to minimise disturbances, but the question arises, if it always has to be disturbances that make predictions of e.g. inventory levels difficult for the near future and practically impossible in the long run. Using a small, but re-entrant manufacturing system, this article presents in-vestigations on how even relatively simple networks can develop irregular dynamics.

Nowadays simulation is a technically mature tool for industrial process design. However, its potential has not been put to use adequately so far. One reason for that is the highly dynamic development of products in this field, which makes it difficult to keep track with the range of products, their possibilities and limitations as well as the state of the art in general.