Ein betriebsbegleitendes Fabriksimulationssystem zur durchgängigen Unterstützung der kontinuierlichen Fabrikadaption

Frequent and brisk changes in business environments as well as massive global competition require continuous planning and adaption of production systems at a high level of planning quality. Based on the current production situation, the right processes have to be optimized and plant structures have to be adjusted to the purpose of the overall system. But mere expert estimates of the impact of measures fail in complex systems. By means of factory simulation in parallel to operation, different action alternatives can be checked on their short-, middle- and long-term impacts without any risks. Most simulation systems currently used in parallel to operation allow short-term predictions of the behavior of production systems in the immediate future. Indeed, essential adaptation options of factory systems cannot be mapped in these simulation systems, thus these options cannot be considered as potential solutions. Otherwise engineering tools of the digital factory proved to be appropriate for long-term formative questions. To allow integrated planning, these tools were connected with a common data platform. However, currently used data models of these platforms are too coarse for factory simulation close to reality. In view of these deficits, a data model used for factory planning was extended in this work by operational abstractions. Thus it was possible to store topical and historical production states in such an enlarged digital factory and to define simulation experiments close to reality. To support mostly iterative experimental processes, a scenario coupling mechanism was implemented. In addition, this approach offers a possibility to update planning models based on operational enterprise data. On this basis a model generator creates a functioning simulation model according to a reference model. To promote effective modeling, the reference model has to be tailored to the enterprise and its adaption possibilities. This architecture, on the one hand, allows the preparing of short-term options for quick and efficient actions and, on the other hand, it is extendable and adaptable. Thus bigger factory adaptations can also be modeled. A developed dynamic initialization procedure makes a significant contribution to carry out realistic experiments. With a decentralized functionality, it integrates itself closely into the reference model approach and supports the adaptation abilities of the system. Thus the introduced factory simulation system supports the following application fields ubiquitous ly: · Proactive checking of action and adaptation needs in operation · Configuration of the factory systems by utilizing the action options for the production systems available on short call · Adaptation of factory systems exceeding a predefined scope of action · Planning of transformation processes The practical suitability of the solution was confirmed by the prototypical implementation in case studies with a manufacturer of taps. This thesis shows the way to integrated and continuous factory simulation being an important aspect for enhancing transformability and thus competitiveness of producing enterprises