Design of Simulation-based Early Warning Systems

The automotive industry is faced with an increasing severe competition. Time is an important factor at the footrace of product and process innovations. Efficient production strategies are helpful tools to react flexibly to future developments and tendencies. Proactive control with foresighted and target-oriented action can help to face up to these challenges. The sooner future developments are identified, the faster one can respond to them. Simulation-based Early Warning Systems provide opportunities to control and analyze complex systems like material flow systems by forecasting future system states. This article presents design aspects and functionalities of Simulation-based Early Warning Systems. The definition of SEWS will be discussed as well as the architecture, requirements for the design of SEWS, the consideration of simulator independency and applications.