Academic articles

In many industrial manufacturing companies, energy has become a major cost factor. Energy aspects are included in the decision-making system of production line planning and control to reduce manufacturing costs. For this priority, the simulation of production line processes requires not only the consideration of logistical and technical production factors but also the integration of time-dependent energy flows. A hybrid (multimethod) simulation shows the complex interactions between material flow and energy usage in production close to reality. This paper presents a simulation approach combining System Dynamics, Discrete-Event and Agent-Based Simulation for energy efficiency analysis in production, considering the energy consumption in the context of planning and scheduling operations.

Klein Mechanisch Werkplaats Eindhoven (KMWE) is a precision manufacturing company situated in the Netherlands and recently relocated to a new location known as the 'Brainport Industries Campus' (BIC). This move allowed KMWE to improve the performance of its manufacturing facility by investing in vertical automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RSs). However, these decisions needed to be made under input uncertainties since the move to BIC and modernization of existing equipment would cause changes in operating parameters inside the facility.

In this study, the researchers show how hybrid simulation modelling was used in production planning optimization, in particular to assess the impact of input uncertainties (such as operator productivity, vertical storage height) on the throughput performance of TSC.

Emergency Room (Emergency Department) overcrowding is a pervasive problem worldwide, which impacts both performance and safety. Staff are required to react and adapt to changes in demand in real-time, while continuing to treat patients.

This paper employs a case study to propose a hybrid application of discrete-event simulation (DES) and time-series forecasting across multiple centers in an urgent care network as one of the emergency room overcrowding solutions. It uses seasonal ARIMA time-series forecasting to predict overcrowding in a near-future moving-window (1-4 hours) using data downloaded from a digital platform (NHSquicker). NHSquicker delivers real-time wait-times from multiple centers of urgent care in the South-West of England. Alongside historical distributions, this data loads the operational state of a real-time discrete-event simulation model at initialization.

The negative effects of urban freight transports, such as air quality problems, road congestion, and noise emissions lead in many cities to major difficulties. A widely studied measure to reduce these negative effects are Urban Consolidation Centers (UCCs), which aim to bundle freight flows to reduce the number of urban freight transports. However, many projects showed that the additional costs of UCCs often made it unattractive for carriers to participate in such schemes. This paper presents an agent-based simulation to assess the impact of urban access regulations on the cost-attractiveness of UCCs for carriers. A case study inspired by the Frankfurt Rhine-Main area is presented to compare deliveries of a group of carriers with and without a Urban Consolidation Center under various urban access scenarios. The simulation shows that regulations increase the cost-attractiveness of UCCs for carriers to varying degrees while increasing the overall traffic volume.

Pakistan is rapidly becoming a water stressed country, thus affecting people’s well-being. Authorities are faced with making drastic water conservation policies toward achieving effective management of available water resources and efficient water supply delivery coupled with responsible demand side management. Due to the lack of modern water metering in Pakistan, water consumption is not being accurately monitored. To achieve this goal, we propose a hybrid modeling and simulation framework, consisting of Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) paradigm that deals with the behavior and characteristics of individuals and System Dynamics(SD) paradigm that accounts for water flow dynamics. Our approach provides dual-resolution expressiveness suitable for replicating real-world urban infrastructure scenarios. The key objective of the research is to assist authorities to understand and forecast short-term and long-term water consumption through examining varying patterns of water consumption in different climates and thus improving demand side water usage dynamically subject to water supply availability.

Worldwide Electrical Power Systems (EPSs) are faced with tremendous challenges because of the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and the increasing number of renewables. EPS analysis can help to show future developments in an uncertain environment and is an important task for the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions. In order to perform such a complex analysis of future EPSs, a huge number of input parameters is needed. Moreover, technical and also economical processes have to be considered. Thereby, one major task is the modeling of electricity markets. In this paper, we present an approach for the modeling of the German EPS including electricity markets using hybrid simulation and mathematical optimization. We contribute an object-oriented electricity market model which can be utilized to study different exchange mechanisms and behavior patterns of generation unit operators. Simulation results show market results for different generation unit operators and realistic market prices.

The last 10 years have witnessed a marked upsurge of attention on Hybrid Simulation (HS). The majority of authors define HS as a joint modelling approach which includes two or more simulation approaches (mainly Discrete Event Simulation, System Dynamics and Agent Based Simulation). Whilst some may argue that HS has been in existence for more than 5 decades, the recent rise tended to be more problem driven rather than technical experimentation. Winter Simulation Conference (WSC) 2015, 2016, 2017 have witnessed 3 panels on the purpose, history and definition of HS, respectively. This paper reports on a comprehensive review conducted by the panelists on HS and its applications.

This paper provides an overview of a hybrid, discrete event simulation (DES) agent based model (ABM), simulation model of the overdue pregnancy outpatient clinic at the Obstetrics department of Akershus University Hospital, Norway. The model is being developed in collaboration with clinic staff. The purpose of the model is to better plan resources (e.g. staffing) to improve patient flow at the outpatient clinic given the uncertainty associated with demand. The uncertainty is due to an increase in the size of the hospital’s catchment area, changes to overdue pregnancy guidelines in Norway and that women can give birth before their appointments. The ABM model component represents the human parts of the system, the women and the clinic staff. The DES component represents the outpatient clinic’s physical location and processes/pathways that operate within it. The technicalities of the model are presented along with some illustrative results.

Production plans are based on fair assumptions of process performance and all operation parameters are taken as averages. There are a number of events that happen in any manufacturing setup during the course of production like periodic delivery of raw materials or changeovers on a machine. The interaction between these events is non-linear and cannot be easily visualized. As a result of which most of the production plans in any company have only a limited realization. This paper provides an example of how simulation using AnyLogic has been applied in one such plant scenario to visualize the plan outcome.

The recent circular economy movement has raised awareness and interest about untapped environmental and economic potential in the manufacturing industry. One of the crucial aspects in the implementation of circular or closedloop manufacturing approach is the design of circular products. While it is obvious that three post-use strategies, i.e., reuse, remanufacturing, and recycling, are highly relevant to achieve loop closure, it is enormously challenging to choose “the right” strategy (if at all) during the early design stage and especially at the single component level. One reason is that economic and environmental impacts of adapting these strategies are not explicit as they vary depending on the chosen business model and associated supply chains. In this scenario, decision support is essential to motivate adaptation of regenerative design strategies. The main purpose of this paper is to provide reliable decision support at the intersection of multiple lifecycle design and business models in the circular economy context to identify effects on cost.