Simulation

Considering new challenges in logistics planning and supply processes, companies are forced to plan their supply chains relating to more flexibility, effectiveness and cost reduction. Today, supply processes are planned once and never changed due to new demand or capacity situations. This article will introduce a new approach of integrated logistics planning combining demand and capacity planning (DCP) with supply planning concepts. The result is an Logistic Assistance System (LAS) as a new generation of Digital-Logistics-Software, which allows dynamic supply chain planning by providing DCP-functionalities with a simulation based approach. The developed simulation component is able to handle the complexity of high-value-added branches with efficient algorithms, to forecast the supply chain behaviour (future stock range, dynamic processes and resulting costs) taking different scenarios into account. It has been demonstrated to produce convincing results in different projects.

Virtual Engineering is an important tool to verify and optimise products in early design phases. For the development of innovative complex technical systems the applied models should comprehend the most important product properties. Up to now there are deficits in modelling and evaluating the acoustic behaviour of technical products although this is important in areas with rigid ergonomic and comfort requirements, e.g. in the consumer goods and automobile industries. In order to overcome these deficits, at the Ilmenau University of Technology a flexible audiovisual stereoscopic projection system (FASP) has been constructed. Consequently, investigations of the sound effects of machine components, machines, cars and other products as well as psycho-acoustic assessments of designed products in a virtual environment can be realized.

This article describes an opportunity to model actors and systems in various business processes into an overall model by using the technique of networking. To achieve this goal, an algorithm is introduced. Next, different metrics based on social network analysis, are described. These metrics are able to expose parts of the network which have a huge utilization and therefore the underlying process itself. With this technique it is possible for project leaders, managers and decision makers to analyze the processes for flaws, finding out capacities and to build new project teams together (staffing).

Shorter product life cycles and rising demands for product variants increasingly lead to capacity demand fluctuations and result in unsatisfactory degrees of assembly system capacity utilization. By offering additional assembly capacities to their customers, manufacturers of assembly systems can establish a promising new business model. If the assembly system manufacturer takes over the responsibility for operating assembly systems, it has to be decided which HR option, recruiting own employees or leasing personnel from a temporary employment agency is best suited for this new business model. In this article a System Dynamics model is introduced that can be used for the assessment of such alternative HR concepts.

Additional to the consideration of technological and organisational aspects as well personnel adjustments have to be considered in time during the introduction of new manufacturing technologies. Reasons for a systematic personnel development are technological changes, e.g. the introduction of new products and manufacturing processes or a modified manufacturing programme. Especially the number and the qualification of the employees who are affected by these changes have to be adjusted to the new requirements. The method of the personnel-oriented technology calendar which is presented in this article provides a systematic and targeted personnel development planning. The approach is demonstrated by means of an application example.

The market-oriented product development describes a focusing of needs, which leads ideally to high product quality and profitability. In the context of “Digital Factory” this paper focuses on the integrated product and process design, which is oriented to the physical part of the product. Due to the high product complexity, shorter product life cycles and increased competition situation is the product development faced with new challenges. Both the speed and the quality of planning should be improved further. Only the combination of organizational approaches and information technologies like for example “Simultaneous Engineering” and the “Digital Factory” promises a sufficient increase of planning efficiency. The following paper deals with existing methodologies and promising approaches in the field of “Digital Factory” against the background of an integrated product and process design. Referring to the requirements of logistics planning, an early integration of ...

The use of virtual engineering techniques in the field of product development requires a continuity of all digital development processes, workflows, tools and data. While this continuity is state-of-the-art on a level of geometric description it is still not achieved on a functional description level of product features. This paper analyses the state of the development and current problems in the process of introduction of virtual engineering in machine and plant engineering enterprises. Furthermore, the authors present their current research works in development of continuous digital process chains for product development.

Rules play an important role in everyday human interaction. In road traffic the participants have to obey to the rules to guarantee smooth traffic flow and to avoid accidents. The participants in these situations are called agents. Artificial agents that act in this environment must be aware of these rules and must act accordingly. Typically, such rules are formulated in natural language and thus, contain qualitative terms like “from left” or “turn right”. These terms are only intricately to implement to navigate agents. In this article we describe a so-called qualitative approach to formalize natural language spatial regulations. With the demonstrator SailAway [1] we show how the formalizations can be applied with little computational effort for collision free navigation in the domain of vessel navigation.

This paper describes an autonomic machine control system applied to the adaptive control of a modular soldering machine. It covers customer requirements, design principles as well as benefits and advantages by making use of software agent technology. The particular case concerns the creation of a novel modular production machine currently running as a pilot, which will be sold worldwide from mid of the year.

In this contribution we want to go into the difficulty of the integration of in-house as well as external development partners in the simulation process. We will focus on the process oriented exchange of simulation data in heterogeneous PDM/SDM system environments, taking into consideration the protection of the know-how of the participating partners. In this contribution a model, as well as its prototypical implementation, are introduced as a solution.