Integrating distributed manufacturing simulations

Abstract

Scientists and engineers within the NIST Manufacturing Systems Integration Division of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory are developing an architecture for distributed manufacturing simulation in collaboration with representatives from a number of outside organizations. The article takes a broad view of distributed manufacturing simulation (DMS). Normally, a DMS may be thought of as a manufacturing simulation that is comprised of multiple software processes that are independently executing and interacting with each other. Together, these simulation software processes may model something as large as a manufacturing supply chain down to something as small as an individual piece of industrial machinery. Different software vendors may have developed the basic underlying simulation software. The modules may run on different computer systems in geographically dispersed locations. The simulation may be distributed to take advantage of the functionality of a specific vendor's products, protect proprietary information associated with individual system models, and/or improve the overall execution speed of the simulation through the use of parallel computer processors.