Web-based Simulation of Production Schedules with High-level Petri Nets

The paper addresses a problem, practitioners in production and logistics are faced with every day: Although several mathematical solutions including Petri net approaches exist for the simulation of complex processes, appropriate and simple to use tools do not exist. In the following, the results of a two year running research project are presented which addresses this problem. Guided by the Design Science Research approach, in this project a programming language and a programming and simulation environment for higher Petri nets has been developed, tested and evaluated. Method and tool are applied to complex simulation problems in production planning and control now. The following results had to be achieved: 1) Schedule-related data like customer orders and their prioritization can be considered now. 2) Various production strategies such as push or pull can be applied. 3) Complex data types including date and time information are supported. 4) Working time and downtime of machines can be imported from external data sources like an MES in order to calculate productivity measures like an OEE index. The tool has been developed as a web-based system in order to support mobile use even on the shop floor. The application of language, tool and simulation results are demonstrated here introductorily at the example of a (simple) production control. The problems handled in current industry projects are more complex of course.