A Flexible and Generic Simulation Model for in-Bound Transport Systems

When planning the material flow between production and warehouse areas more precise and efficient methods are required due to the increasing complexity of logistics networks and the higher need for flexibility. In recent years simulation methods have gained in importance, since they are able to consider a wider range of factors that may influence the system performance such as vehicle interactions or stochastic effects. Simulation methods are however often associated with high development costs. In this work, we first present a generic and flexible modelling approach for in-bound transport systems. Here, we focus on three different freely movable transport vehicles: forklifts, tugger trains and automated guided vehicles. Based on this approach we then automatically create a runnable discrete event simulation model that enables analyzing the system performance and thus identifying potential optimization measures.