Abstract
The distributed virtual factory (DVF) based on the concept of distributed simulation has been proposed as a new simulation environment to evaluate the performance of large scale manufacturing systems. To develop a DVF, it is necessary to integrate existing area-level simulators modeled by various simulation softwares via computer networks. In this paper, DVF is constructed by implementing a communication interface, developed by C++, VisualBasic etc., on existing area-level simulators, where each programming language is supported by the corresponding simulation software to enhance its functions. The function of communication interface and the implementation procedure are described through an illustrative development of a hypothetical DVF.
