Modelling and Simulation Environments for Design Planning and Operation of Globally Distributed Enterprises

Abstract

Manufacturing industries are facing borderless mega competitions to survive in a global market today. In order to defeat competitors, cost reduction and quality improvement should be done as a matter of course. But the most important point is when to market. As soon as customers' needs are clear, manufacturers should develop new products, install manufacturing systems, and put the products into a global market right on time. Such agility is indispensable for all manufacturers. To realize agility new engineering methods, such as concurrent Engineering, Simultaneous Engineering, and Virtual Enterprise, has been adopted and various information technologies, such as CAD, CAM, CAE, network, database, etc., are installed to support manufacturing system engineering activities through the manufacturing system life cycle, which covers designing, constructing, operating and recycling.