1、THE EXPANDING ROLE OF SIMULATION IN FUTURE MANUFACTURINGABSTRACTSimulation technology holds tremendous promise for reducing costs, improving quality, and shortening the time to market for manufactured goods. Unfortunately, this technology still remains largely underutilized by industry today. This p
2、aper suggests benefits to industry resulting from the widespread, pervasive implementation of manufacturing simulation technology. Potential simulation impact areas are closely intertwined with strategic manufacturing. Yet, a number of factors currently inhibit the deployment of simulation technolog
3、y in industry today. The development of new simulation interface standards could help increase the deployment of simulation technology. Interface standards could improve the accessibility of this technology by helping to reduce the expenses associated with acquisition and deployment, minimize model
4、development time and costs, and provide new types of simulation functionality that are not available today.1 BACKGROUNDStrategic manufacturing is a hot topic today. Steve Brown, author of Strategic Manufacturing for Competitive AdvantageTransforming Operations From Shop Floor To Strategy, suggests t
5、hat it is the next step beyond lean manufacturing. Strategic manufacturing, as defined in Browns text, is viewing production-operations capabilities as a core competence, having a long term view of the business, being fully aware of all market opportunities, planning strategies to outperform competi
6、tors by targeting sectors in which it can compete while deliberately avoiding those in which it cannot, and engaging in horizontal and vertical partnerships. He goes on to characterize strategic manufacturing in terms of corporate strategy, manufacturing strategy, product innovations, process techno
7、logy, quality, materials management, and human resources. Manufacturing strategy “decisions will include investment in technology, expanding into new plants and adding capacity, strategic buyer/supplier relationships, the extent of joint ventures with other firms, the extent of vertical integration,
8、 and so on” (Brown 1996).1.1 Benefits of SimulationThe authors of this paper contend that manufacturing simulation should be treated as a key component of strategic manufacturing. What is manufacturing simulation? In The Handbook of Simulation, Jerry Banks defines simulation as:“the imitation of the
9、 operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulation involves the generation of an artificial history of the system and the observation of that artificial history to draw inferences concerning the operational characteristics of the real system that is represented. Simulation is an indi
10、spensable problem-solving methodology for the solution of many real-world problems. Simulation is used to describe and analyze the behavior of a system, ask what-if questions about the real system, and aid in the design of real systems. Both existing and conceptual systems can be modeled with simula
11、tion.” (Banks 1998)Manufacturing simulation focuses on modeling the behavior of manufacturing organizations, processes, and systems. Organizations, processes and systems include supply chains, as well as people, machines, tools, and information systems. For example, manufacturing simulation can be u
12、sed to: Model “as-is” and “to-be” manufacturing and support operations from the supply chain level down to the shop floor Evaluate the manufacturability of new product designs Support the development and validation of process data for new products Assist in the engineering of new production systems
13、and processes Evaluate their impact on overall business performance Evaluate resource allocation and scheduling alternatives Analyze layouts and flow of materials within production areas, lines, and workstations Perform capacity planning analyses Determine production and material handling resource r
14、equirements Train production and support staff on systems and processes Develop metrics to allow the comparison of predicted performance against “best in class” benchmarks to support continuous improvement of manufacturing operations.Other examples of manufacturing simulation applications include: t
15、he modeling and verification of discrete and continuous manufacturing processes (e.g., machining, injection molding, sheet metal forming, semiconductor fabrication), offline programming of robots and other machinery, site selection, layout planning, process and system visualization, ergonomic analys
16、is of manual tasks and work area layout, evaluation of scheduling algorithms and dispatching rules, and business process engineering.Simulation models are built to support decisions regarding investment in new technology, expansion of production capabilities, modeling of supplier relationships, materials management, human resources, and so forth thus simulation supports many of the strategic manufacturing target areas identified earlier in
