Computational steering in simulation of manufacturing systems

Traditional steps in a discrete event manufacturing simulation are to prepare input variables, select simulation parameters, run the simulation and review the results after the execution is completed. The main drawback in such systems is that complex "what if scenario" analysis would require several simulation cycles before they divulge interesting or valuable information. In an approach proposed here, we have utilized computational steering concepts along with an interactive virtual environment to obtain results of a manufacturing simulation on the fly thus allowing quick changes and instant feedback from the system. A simple conceptual system was implemented to study this approach. Initial results have provided several interesting observations.