Introduction
Using simulation models for manufacturing facilities is a common approach for planning, optimizing, and testing different machine configurations and positioning before the actual construction. It allows the evaluation of different variants to support the decision-making process.
Nevertheless, setting up and executing a simulation model is often a manual process that involves several steps and experts — for instance, defining simulation scenarios by a production planner, consolidating and preparing input data for the simulation by a data analyst, and implementing simulation models by a simulation expert.
Simulation model
In this study, component-based synthesis was used with combinatory logic to synthesize a product line of varying simulation models for a given configuration to be executed and evaluated to find suitable solutions.
The superior goal was to provide an application that allowed the execution of the simulation model without installing the simulation tool or other programs. Therefore, the AnyLogic 8 export functionality was used to export a simulation model into a standalone application.
Schematic flow of the optimization
Results
This paper presented a proof of concept for gradually migrating a master simulation model for shop floor layouts of machines into a product line of different simulation models to explore and find suitable solutions. The approach used combinatory logic with intersection types to define a set of components that formed the basis for the Combinatory Logic Synthesizer framework to synthesize new solutions.