Simulation based online production planning

Abstract In the production of complex products, staying on schedule is a daily challenge. Unscheduled disturbances within the production and its processes (e.g. supplier failures or machine malfunction) can occur. A quick and correct reaction from the people in charge is required to avoid negative consequences such as delay in delivery. Nowadays production often lacks a high degree of transparency, due to old machinery and unavailable or missing digital information within production. Therefore today’s reactions and decision-making processes, often based on discussion and personal experience, are time consuming and can involve countless human resources. With Industry 4.0 there are more possibilities to create a high degree of transparency in production because lots of information is digitally and contemporarily available. Machines can communicate with a manufacturing execution system to provide production data in near real-time. This leads to new possibilities such as a simulation based online production planning system. The paper deals with the development of such a system to provide intelligent assistance for decision making and for reaching the corporate objectives.