Praxisbeispiel und Nutzen der objektorientierten Konzeption für die Fabriksimulation: Flexibilität und Wandlungsfähigkeit als Anforderungen an Fabrikstrukturen und Produktionssyteme

The planning of factories and manufacturing systems is usually regarded as a once-in-a-lifetime process. The growing turbulence of today´s global markets cannot be compensated by mere organizational and capacitive modifications such as extra shifts, increased machine utilization or work overtime. Rather models must be created to enable manfacturing systems and factories to be adapted proactively according to the requirements. The use of system models is a successful solution for integrating and accelerating flexible planning. These models enable the generation of several simulation models, the evaluation of planning results and the use of heuristic algorithms. Using those system models invokes problems, such as the complexity of creation, use and adjustment. One proven methodological solution for this is the Unified Modeling Language (UML), an industrial standard for object-oriented software development. In the paper the suitability of using the mentioned system models and the object-oriented methodology is presented. Based on a case study the relevance for enterprises is shown. An outlook over the future work and fields of research in our Institute will be given