Modelling and Simulation of Human Decision-Making in Manufacturing Systems

The simulation of manufacturing processes mainly focuses on the structure of machinery resources and the flow of material, but the inclusion of the personnel in the simulation model is only slowly gaining in importance. When personnel resources are modelled, merely the operative tasks are represented. However, as a result of modern manufacturing concepts, worker decisions at a workshop level are becoming more and more important. This article deals with various concepts for the modelling of human decisions in manufacturing systems, namely from human decision makers as passive resources over the modelling of decisions based on global rules to the modelling of active decision makers with individual, locally valid decision-making rules. Each of these various types of modelling will be elucidated using an application example