Integrated model and simulation of the production system

Market constraints make it necessary for firms to take a global view and therefore to find a model permitting the integration of different functions of production. This aim is to develop a new approach based on three entities: process, functions, actors (PFA approach). The actors are all the human and material resources of the production system. The process represents all the logical mechanisms of thought and decision-making. The functions assure the link between the actors and the process. The PFA approach permits the integration of three levels of CIM: production management, supervision and workshop. It consists in integrating many of the existing modelling tools, when developing the model. In this way we have developed a modelling methodology which is broken down into four steps: 1. The use of the systemic approach to separate actors from process. 2. The use of the hierarchical approach to break down the production process into subprocesses. 3. The use of the object-oriented approach to model the actors. 4. The use of functions permitting the link between the process and the actors. The PFA approach allows to facilitate a simulation of an integrated model of the production system