A Neutral Framework Approach to Enhance Discrete-Event Simulation Model Interoperability

Even though simulation technology provides great benefits to industry, it is largely underutilized. One of the biggest barriers to utilizing simulation is the lack of interoperability between simulation models. This problem is aggravated when simulation models that need to interact with each other span an enterprise supply chain. To solve this problem, the authors proposed a framework that captures the most common simulation elements and can serve as an intermediate language between disparate simulation models. Tools are developed to implement the framework. In this paper, a common user interface (CUI) with software specified controllers is developed for using the proposed framework with various commercial simulation software packages. The CUI is also used to edit simulation models in a neutral environment.