Discrete Event Simulation Applied to Aircraft Development Cycle

The trend in aerospace industry is to increase product complexity, reduce costs and integrate processes along the aircraft lifecycle. Discrete event simulation provides an important support to this challenge. Discrete event simulation techniques are a flexible tool for the evaluation of solutions, comparison of productive scenarios, analysis the impact of modifications and introduction of new processes. However, the selection of the modeling method and simulation tool is not trivial. It impacts not only on the results but also on the effort required to run the simulation. In this context, this paper analyses the applicability of two modeling and simulation approaches in different phases of the aeronautical product lifecycle. It considers the use of event oriented simulation based on Petri nets and process oriented simulation, based on the commercial tool QUEST.