Research communications - A simulation model of the "contract change" process

Presents a simulation model of the "Contract change process" for an aerospa ce manufacturing firm. The model was developed to simulate the activities f rom the time when a customer's request is received to the two points in tim e where a preliminary schedule and a formal proposal is returned to the cus tomer: The model was developed in a two-stage approach. First, the process was studied and documented in US Air Force integrated computer aided manufa cturing definition language for function modeling an IDEF0 model which defi ned the relationships between each Pair of activities. Second, using the st ructural information provided by the IDEFo model, a simulation model using simulation language for alternative modeling (SLAMII) was developed. Data w ere obtained from archival sources in the department's database The data we re analyzed according to the quarter in which they were received. From this , arrival time data distributions were estimated for each of the four quart ers to capture the seasonality element ill the company's business. Next, th e data were separated into three levels of difficulty to define complex, ro utine and simple tasks From this, three distributions of activity times wer e developed for Each set of tasks The results will allow for the study of r eengineering and downsizing decisions for the contract change Process in th e aerospace industry, under conditions of seasonal and task complexity vari ations.