Academic articles

Catastrophic events such as hurricanes, earthquakes or floods require emergency responders to rapidly distribute emergency relief supplies to protect the health and lives of victims. In this paper we develop a simulation and optimization framework for managing the logistics of distributing relief supplies in a multi-tier supply network. The simulation model captures optimized stocking of relief supplies, distribution operations at federal or state-operated staging facilities, demand uncertainty, and the dynamic progression of disaster response operations. We apply robust optimization techniques to develop optimized stocking policies and dispatch of relief supplies between staging facilities and points of distribution. The simulation framework accommodates a wide range of disaster scenarios and stressors, and helps assess the efficacy of response plans and policies for better disaster response.

Although research into simulation of construction continues to advance and thrive in the academic world, application of simulation in the construction industry remains limited. Stakeholders on construction projects have yet to adopt simulation as their default tool of choice for managing large complex projects, instead of traditional techniques, which are often inadequate. This paper describes the building of an asphalt paving simulator, as an example of the rigor and effort required in developing construction simulation models, and then briefly describes an alternative model building method currently being researched which may potentially make it easier and faster for stakeholders to quickly build construction simulation models.

This paper presents a comprehensive simulation project in the area of an automotive supplier. The company produces car styling serial and original accessory parts made from plastic for internal and external applications in passenger cars. For the foaming division, which is identified as the bottleneck, different personnel and qualification scenarios, set-up optimizations and lot-sizing strategies are compared with the current situation. Key performance measures reported are inventory, tardiness and service level. The changes in organizational costs (e.g. employee training, additional employees, etc.), due to the scenarios, are not considered and are traded off with the logistical potential by the company itself. Results of the simulation study indicate that a combination of an additional fitter during night shift, minor reductions of set-up times and reduced lot-sizes leads to an inventory reduction of ~10.6% and a service level improvement of ~8% compared to the current situation.

This paper presents an online simulation framework that can be used to support operational decisions within the context of Through-life Engineering Services. Acting as a closed-loop feedback control mechanism, the simulation model is physically coupled to the assets and will be triggered and automatically executed to assess a set of operational decisions related to maintenance scheduling, resource allocation, spare parts inventory etc. Experimental cases comparing the online simulation against the traditional approach will also be presented. The outcomes have demonstrated the prospects of the framework in enabling more effective/efficient operations of engineering services leading to high assets availability and reduced through-life costs.

This paper discusses the development of an individual based simulation of interventions for better treatment of patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA). The interdisciplinary subject required collaboration of medical doctors, Health Technology Assessment (HTA) experts and modelers.

Prospective Health Technology Assessment allows early decision making for innovative health care technologies. In our recent publications a hybrid simulation approach with System Dynamics and Agent-Based Modeling has been presented. This paper presents a mechanism to generate agents dynamically from SD models and extends the previously presented hybrid approach by process-oriented Discrete Event Simulation for hospital modeling.

Several challenges of port/terminal and/or ferry company managers pertain to decisions for the justification of investments and concurrent operational tasks of roll-on/roll-off passenger (RoPax) and roll-on/roll-off (RoRo) systems. This paper explores the possible uses of Modeling and Simulation (M&S) techniques as a decision-support aid for a RoPax/RoRo system managers.

Looking for new improvement options such as new dispatching rules of an existing semiconductor fabrication facility, a detailed model is indispensable to check the data quality as well as detecting main influences of the facility and finally testing the new optimization approaches.

Contemporary aerospace programmes often suffer from large cost overruns, delivery delays and inferior product quality. This is caused in part by poor predictive quality of the early design phase processes with regards to the operational environment of a product. This paper develops the idea of a generic operational simulation that can help designers to rigorously analyse and test their early product concepts. The simulation focusses on civil Unmanned Air Vehicle products and missions to keep the scope of work tractable.

AnyLogic è un ambiente di modellazione virtuale di sistemi discreti, continui ed ibridi. Con questo strumento è possibile creare prototipi di sistemi durante le fasi di studio, progettazione o sviluppo, attraverso cui esplorare aspetti e dettagli della progettazione o della implementazione dei relativi sistemi in modo semplice e privo di rischi