FACTOR/ AIM: a manufacturing simulation system

This paper presents a formal description of FACTOR/AIM™, a complete manufacturing simulation system. AIM contains a manufacturing modelling language, a simulation analysis program, a problem definition interface and a database for storing inputs, models, animations, simulation outputs and analysis procedures. These components of AIM are integrated in a seamless manner to facilitate both their concurrent and batch execution. AIM also provides utility programs for importing and exporting data to the AIM data base. The focus of the article is to provide a basic understanding of a manufacturing simulation system