The simulation of flow shop production system in PTO environment through a matrix approach in system dynamics logic

This paper faces the problem of industrial production optimization through a simulation based approach and in a context of high rigidity production constraints. When an industrial plant is made by several work centers, operating in a typical flow shop configuration, its operation can be seen as a sequence of discrete events, whose optimization can be solved as a scheduling problem. The approach shown in this work is based on a System Dynamics simulation logic. In despite of an apparent greater complexity if compared to traditional discrete event simulation approaches, this logic allows to identify at each instant the position and the confluence of each single order and, moreover, to decide in a dynamic way operations planning at each work center. The simulation approach makes use of matrices to develop the model. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed approach, we have applied it to a case study, considering a flow shop production system in a PTO environment.