Overview

Production System Simulation (PSS) enables you to study the dynamic behavior of the production system and its logistics and also helps to evaluate its performance. This guide is intended for users who need to become quickly familiar with the Production System Simulation product.

Production System Simulation in a Nutshell

Production System Simulation workbench provides the capability to simulate (discrete event simulation) and analyze complex production systems with uncertainty and time variability. Production System Simulation provides an easy-to-use interface to:

  • Define the model of the production system, by defining:
    • Systems for processing, storage, and transfer their operations using the pre-defined process plan.
    • The arrival of raw material into the systems and the dispatch of products from the production systems.
    • The flow of products through the systems.
    • Uncertainty and variability that exists in the real system by defining statistical distribution for various parameters, for example, operation time.
  • Simulate the system over multiple cycles using Discrete Event Simulation to evaluate the performance of the system. The results of the simulation provide various outputs with which you can estimate the production capacity of the system, its utilization, inventory levels. You can run multiple simulations with different random number streams to study the effect of uncertainty and variability.
  • Simulate what-if scenarios to evaluate alternative routing and system designs. The various scenarios and the simulation results can be saved for future reference and analysis.
  • Monitor the state of the various systems during the simulation with the help of dynamically updating charts. This helps you to understand the dynamic behavior of the systems.
  • Review the defined systems and operations model and product flow with the help of animation to understand the defined model.

It offers capabilities in PPR and SIMULIA contexts.

In PPR Context:

  • Define the system structure:
    • general systems, transfer systems, and their operations
    • source, sink, and buffer systems and their operations
    • system operation time and time distribution
    • random number stream for time distribution
    • product flow between systems and flow behavior
    • repair operation and behavior
    • data flow between operations within a system and across systems.
  • Review the system, its operations, and the assigned/materialized animated flow of products.
  • Simulate system operation and product flow over multiple cycles.
  • Define and track simulation objective.
  • View and monitor the system state during simulation:
    • product animation on systems
    • system state, simulation traces, and future events.
  • View the simulation results in charts and tables.

In SIMULIA Context:


  • Define multiple simulation scenarios for a system, modify systems, operations, and flow properties.
  • Simulate the defined scenarios both in animation and batch modes.
  • Store and view results of all simulation scenarios.
  • Execute multiple replications/runs and view results.

Before Reading this Guide

Before reading this guide, you should be familiar with basic concepts such as document windows, standard, and view toolbars. Therefore, we recommend that you read the Infrastructure User's Guide that describes generic capabilities common to all products. It also describes the general layout and the interoperability between workbenches.

Getting the Most Out of this Guide

To get the most out of this guide, we suggest that you start reading and performing the step-by-step user tasks which illustrate the product functionalities. The Interface Description section, which describes the commands that are specific to Production System Simulation, will also certainly prove useful.