A new procedure model for verification and validation in production and logistics simulation

Verification & validation of simulation models and results has been strongly investigated in the context of defence applications. Significantly less substantial work can be found for applications for production and logistics, which is surprising when taking into account the massive impact that wrong or inadequate simulation results can have on strategic and investment-related decisions for large production and logistics systems. The authors have, therefore, founded an expert group for this specific topic in the year 2003, which has analysed the existing material and then developed proposals for definitions, overviews on existing V&V techniques, practical hints for the documentation of the procedural steps within a simulation study, and a specific procedure model for V&V in the context of simulation for production and logistics. The results of this working group are available as a textbook, in German. This paper summarises major results.