Establishing an object-oriented methodology for the simulation and control of integrated manufacturing systems

The current simulation tools which are based upon stochastic queuing network architectures have proven to be inadequate for modeling modern flexible manufacturing systems (FMSs). A hierarchical, object-oriented programmable logic simulator (HOOPLS) is proposed: to model the interaction among the controllers which coordinate the production in an FMS; to address the flow of all entity types including jobs, fixturing, tooling, and information; and to provide direct consideration of the detailed processing plans which govern how resources are employed to manufacture a given item within the FMS.