Book Description

Even though simulation technology provides great benefits to industry, it is largely underutilized. One of the biggest barriers to utilizing simulation is the lack of interoperability between simulation models. This is especially true when simulation models that need to interact with each other span an enterprise or supply chain. These models are likely to be distributed and developed in disparate simulation application software. In order to analyze the dynamic behavior of the systems they represent, the models must interoperate. However, currently this interoperability is nearly impossible. The interaction of models also refers to the understanding of them among stakeholders in the different stages of models' lifecycles. The lack of interoperability also makes it difficult to share the knowledge within disparate models. This research first investigates this problem by identifying, defining, and analyzing the types of simulation model interactions. It then identifies and defines possible approaches to allow models to interact. Finally, a framework that adopts the strength of Structured Modeling (SM) and the Object-Oriented (OO) concept is proposed for representing discrete event simulation models. The framework captures the most common simulation elements and will serve as an intermediate language between disparate simulation models. Because of the structured nature of the framework, the resulting model representation is concise and easily understandable. Tools are developed to implement the framework. A Common User Interface (CUI) with software specified controllers is developed for using the proposed framework with various commercial simulation software packages. The CUI is also used to edit simulation models in a neutral environment. A graphical modeling tool is also developed to facilitate conceptual modeling. The resulting graphic can be translated into the common model representation automatically. This not only increases the understanding of models for all stakeholders, but also shifts model interactions to the "formulating" stage, which can prevent problems later in the model's lifecycle. Illustration of the proposed framework and the tools will be given, as well as future work needs.