Net-Simulation: Combining Optimisation and Simulation in the Textile Industry

Traditionally, simulation has been applied as an off-line tool for mid or long-term planning and for operational design whereas optimisation has been applied on-line on a daily basis for scheduling. The impact of variability and randomness on the real system greatly increases the difficulty of scheduling and control of manufacturing systems. Therefore, the is a great interest for using on-line simulation models as a means for improving the quality of the generated schedules. In this paper we present a NETSIMULATION systems that tries to combine on-line the potential of constraint optimisation techniques for solving complex scheduling problems with the potential of simulation models for taking into account the variability, randomness and a myriad of dynamic aspects present in industrial systems.