Web-based Simulation of Manufacturing Systems

Powerful new features may be incorporated to simulation environments by exploiting existing Web technology. To demonstrate this, WebManSim, a prototype web-based manufacturing system simulator has been developed. The proposed system includes project management principles, supports communication and voting and provides workflow facilities and simulation program generation execution capabilities. Such a system provides close monitor to the evolution of the simulation project, enhances the coordination and communication of the simulation participants, identifies and resolves conflicts that may arise in the simulation team and creates virtual simulation expert communities. The use of such a system may improve the simulation team coordination by automatically initiating project tasks as soon as possible, reduce the project duration by eliminating dead time between activities and decrease the overall simulation project cost by minimizing the face-to-face meetings especially when used by project teams located at geographically remote places. (Received in August 2008, accepted in January 2009. This paper was with the author 2 months for 1 revision.)