Assembly Simulation in the Design Process in a Distributed Environment

Simulation technology is applicable across a distributed enterprise in the pursuit o f bringing high quality products to the market in minimum time. The proliferation o f computing technology and software applications now makes simulations available to many organizations in an enterprise. Significant focus has been devoted to manufacturing facility simulation and the automation o f these simulations. The focus in this paper is assembly simulation early in a product design process in a distributed environment. The authors introduce a simulation framework, activity model, distributed simulation architecture, neutral data interfaces, and a case study of the use of assembly simulation early in the design process in a collaborative distributed environment.