Novel platform to optimise decision-making processes in manufacturing
Integrating predictive simulation modelling and optimisation methodologies into routine decision-making processes is vital if industrial companies want to maintain and boost their competitiveness. To achieve this, technology is needed that goes beyond the state of the art. With this in mind, the EU-funded DREAM (Simulation based application decision support in real-time for efficient agile manufacturing) project set out to create a simulation application platform that enables seamless integration of established decision practices. Work began with the design of the simulation platform's overall architecture. This was followed by the development of simulation models, a knowledge extraction tool that turns data into knowledge and feeds the simulation models with information from enterprise data sources, and a user interface enabling users to graphically edit business procedures and visualise the history of decision workflows. Project partners then developed a semantic free open simulation application development platform to support the wide adoption of simulation-based applications by the European manufacturing industry. The platform allows manufacturing companies, consultancy firms, the open source community and researchers to deliver beyond existing state-of-the-art simulation decision-support applications for the manufacturing sector in Europe. DREAM members carried out industrial pilot cases that successfully demonstrated the simulation applications based on the DREAM platform. Thanks to DREAM, European manufacturers will benefit from several measurable outcomes: lower cycle times (15 %); improved customer service (10-20 %); increased first-time-right decision making (50 %); reduced process development and implementation (25 %); improved production efficiency with higher throughput (10-20 %); reduction in energy (20 %); and speedier recovery from production disruptions (25 %). These foreseen impacts should support the competitiveness of European manufacturing and get a leg up on existing and emerging competitors.
Keywords
Event simulation technology, DREAM, simulation based application decision support, agile manufacturing
