The development of a visual interactive simulation of packaging flow lines

The design and implementation of new manufacturing processes or the reconfi guration/ reuse of existing machines is a multidisciplinary activity. The i ntroduction and modification of processes requires input from a variety of people with disparate skills, backgrounds, responsibilities and requirement s. In addition, the trend towards globalization of businesses has resulted in collaborative projects involving domain experts who speak different lang uages and originate from different cultural backgrounds. Clearly effective communication via common representations is essential in such projects. A v isual interactive simulation that can easily be modified (i.e. reconfigured , extended or reused) is an effective method of providing a common represen tation for personnel involved in the design and implementation of manufactu ring processes. In this paper the development of a visual interactive simul ation is discussed with regards to the problem of investigating the operati on and interoperation of a number of workstations that comprise a beverage can production flow line. A consortium of European partners was involved in the project to determine the opportunities to increase the efficiency of t he current operation with respect to material usage and machine operational efficiency.