The Development of a Discrete-Event Simulation Model to Aid the Design of Complex Manufacturing Systems

The emerging dominance of lean and agile techniques is resulting in a worldwide trend towards shorter product cycles, with smaller lead times and shorter production runs. Discrete-event simulation is a time-consuming process and data collection is such a major part of the time period of such a cycle. This paper introduces the circuit of observation concepts which provide a massively reduced cycle time for data collection; this makes it a much more valuable tool in a manufacturing environment and expands its uses due to its greater flexibility. The case study strongly supports the findings.