Production and Logistics Systems Modeling Challenge Team

The production and logistics modeling team is advancing the practice and adoption of formal system modeling and model-based systems engineering methodologies in production and logistics systems development and operations. Specific challenges in providing a foundation to production and logistics [systems] engineering are the lack of:

• Standard reference models
• Well-structured engineering design methodologies
• Integrated analysis models and tools available to support design and operational decision-making.

The purpose of this challenge team is to increase the availability of reference models, awareness of these models and methods, and successful use of MBSE in the production, logistics, and industrial engineering communities.

The systems of interest are discrete event logistics systems (DELS). They can be described as:

• Structure: a network of resources, arranged in a facility; each resource has one or more processing capabilities that have a (maximum) capacity;
• Behavior: products flow through the network and are transformed by processes executed by resources; a process may require capabilities of multiple resources; a transformation can change location, age, or condition of a product.

These systems include, but are not limited to:

• supply chains,
• production & manufacturing systems,
• transportation networks,
• warehouses,
• and health care delivery systems.

The adjective “discrete” recognizes the nature of the products, flows, and processes. Products are discrete units, e.g., individual product units or components of product units, or batches of product units, flowing through the network separately. Processes have well-defined start and end times, e.g., the start of a machining or heat-treating process and completion of same, even though our knowledge of the well-defined time may be uncertain.

The scope of team activities is broad, covering almost all aspects of DELS. It might be narrowed and/or broken into smaller projects and outcomes based on the interest of team members. The scope can be defined along three axes:

• System Lifecycle Integration: conceive, design, realize, service, retire (SeBoK)
• Enterprise Integration: Process Control, SCADA, MOM, & ERP. (ISA-95 hierarchy).
• Product Lifecycle: procurement, manufacture, sustainment, retirement. (SCOR: Source, Make, Deliver, Return)

General measures of success of this working group include the number of members, joint activity partners, and activities successfully completed over the long term (years). The activities will be determined by our target stakeholders:

• Domain Experts: Capture and operationalize knowledge about DELS design and operation; enable access to analysis methods through system-analysis integration (SAI) methods.
• Modeling End Users: Increase availability of domain-specific reference models, model libraries, and patterns to support successful usage of system models and model-based methods.
• Analysis Experts: Connect analysis requirements (from domain experts) to development and deployment of analysis methods. Capture analysis models and methods components of MBSE for DELS, advance analysis integration and interoperability/SAI.
• Tool Developers: Connect analysis requirements (from domain experts) to development of better analysis tools, e.g. simulation, and to deployment of analysis tools derived from and integrated with formal system models (industry-grade SAI tools).
• Standards Development Organizations: Leverage DELS models to integrate related standards and identify requirements for DELS standardization.
• Enterprises: Increase successful use of system models and MBSE; integrate production and logistics functions with product lifecycle modeling (PLM) to create richer use case demonstrations of MBSE value (ROI).

Phase 1: (Time period to be established)

• Expand membership, share and refine the charter, develop a long-term plan, and gain team buy-in to long term plan.
• Bring membership up to a common level of DELS modeling, by developing and delivering DELS modeling tutorials.
• Define and demonstrate capabilities for DELS modeling
• Identify target products for near-term work by the team:
  • Common & domain-specific reference models and architectures (demonstrated using SysML)
  • Integrated MBSE / design methodologies for DELS
  • Integrated analysis tools (SAI for routine, common analysis models)
  • Suitable use cases, and test cases.

Challenge team weekly meeting at 11 am (Eastern) Fridays. To join the Meeting: https://bluejeans.com/419553114

Challenge Team Lead / POC: Tim Sprock, NIST: [email protected]

Co-Lead: Leon McGinnis, Georgia Tech

Co-Lead: Conrad Bock, NIST