Optimization of Logistic and Manufacturing Systems through Simulation: A Colored Petri Net-Based Methodology

Simulation models have proved to be useful for examining the performance of different system configurations and/or alternative operating procedures for complex logistic or manufacturing systems. However, when applying simulation techniques to increase the performance of those systems, several limitations arise due to their inability to evaluate more than a fraction of the immense range of options available. Simulation-optimization is one of the most popular approaches to improve the use of simulation models as a tool to obtain the best (optimal or quasi-optimal) decision variable values that minimize a certain objective function. However, despite the success of several simulation-optimization packages, many technical barriers still remain. The authors describe a new approach to integrate evaluation (simulation) methods with search methods (optimization) based on not only simulation results but also information from the simulation model.