Improving Manufacturing Simulations by Modeling Technician Decision Processes

Manufacturing modeling and simulation has historically been equipment-centric. This equipmentcentric view is an imperfect representation of a realworld factory where Operators’ decision-making processes drive manufacturing. This paper evaluates rudimentary enhancements to a simulation tool allowing for Operator-centric modeling. The results of these experiments indicate a significant improvement in our ability to capture key factory metrics when we move toward Operator-centric modeling. The next steps toward developing Operator-centric modeling capabilities are discussed in the conclusion.