A simulation-based decision support system for a specialty chemicals production plant
George Sidney Bernstein, Eric C. Carlson, Richard M. Felder, Roger E. Bokeny · 1992
The subject of this paper is the development of an interactive simulation-based decision support system for a batch processing facility.Thk+ system is a decision-making tool that can be used by both the production scheduler and the production staff to help them in both long and short-term scheduling of production and equipment and in capacity planning.Simulation has been combined with artificial intelligence methodology to produce an interactive, simulation-based decision support system that can be used in an on-line or off-line mode.Off line, the system can be used for long-term capacity and debottlenecking studies.Operated on line, the model can be used for short-term planning, scheduling, and decision-makhtg.The different modules of the system interface with the user in a menu-driven format, collect work-in-process information from the plant's distributed control system, run simulations, and provide interpretations of the results in an easy-to-understand format. 1