Configuring an open pipeline fulfilment system - a simulation study in an automotive context

Automotive producers are adopting multi-modal fulfillment models in which customers can be fulfilled by products from stock, by allocating as yet unmade products that are in the planning pipeline, or by building a product to order. This study explores how fulfillment is sensitive to several parameters of the system and how they interact with different methods for sequencing products into the production plan.

Investigating output accuracy for a discrete event simulation model and an agent based simulation model

In this paper, we investigate output accuracy for a Discrete Event Simulation (DES) model and Agent Based Simulation (ABS) model. The purpose of this investigation is to find out which of these simulation techniques is the best one for modelling human reactive behaviour in the retail sector. In order to study the output accuracy in both models, we have carried out a validation experiment in which we compared the results from our simulation models to the performance of a real system. Our experiment was carried out using a large UK department store as a case study. We had to determine an efficient implementation of management policy in the store’s fitting room using DES and ABS. Overall, we have found that both simulation models were a good representation of the real system when modelling human reactive behaviour.