METAMODELS IN MANUFACTURING - A REVIEW

Simulation is frequently used in design of manufacturing systems. Trad itionally it is used to design individual production shops or cells, b ut manufacturers are becoming aware that the major gains in competitiv eness made necessary by the growing challenge of global markets, are a vailable only from integrated design of entire factories. In this cont ext simulation models become unwiedly. Meanwhile metamodelling techniq ues have been maturing, and may provide a more versatile extension to simulation, and deeper insight into modelled systems. Further, the rel ative computational simplicity of metamodels offers the prospect of pr actically modelling more extensive systems. This paper reviews the pub lished development of metamodelling techniques, with particular emphas is on their relevance to manufacturing.