Introducing agent-based simulation of manufacturing systems to industrial discrete-event simulation tools

Growing competition and increasing market dynamics force manufacturing companies to increase flexibility in their manufacturing systems. Thus, new approaches, which exceed the limitations of traditional manufacturing systems, are needed. This also requires rethinking the simulation modeling behind those systems. However, simulation software tools used in industry, referred to as industrial grade software tools, and actually used simulation models are not sufficient for this purpose. Therefore, this paper aims at building up an agent based simulation model of a flexible manufacturing system in an industrial grade software tool. For that aim, a general three-step approach for implementing an agent-based logic into an industrial grade discrete-event simulation tool is presented. An exemplary application is based on a matrix-structured manufacturing system that provides by its structure and by the individual acting entities a flexible and scalable approach without a fixed cycle time. The example is modeled within the industrial grade discrete-event simulation software Tecnomatix Plant Simulation and compared to a reference model, recreating the same results with small deviations.