Advanced Modeling and Simulation for Industrial Logistics

In this book the use of simulation is recommended for decision making from the very start. To achieve the description of time dependent behavior is also defined at an interdisciplinary level. Natural language is used to describe the processes as defined in the interdisciplinary PROcess-PERformance model. Like the other disciplines, simulation evolved as a specialist discipline. In order to preserve a direct connection with the process descriptions of the PROPER model, these natural language process descriptions are translated into an object oriented Process Description Language PDL. It can be implemented in any object oriented software environment, here for example in the Borland Delphi platform. The implementation is called TOMAS: "Tool for Object oriented Modeling And Simulation". In order to support the growing level of detail of the PROPER model during a design project, TOMAS also supports distributed simulation. Finally the use of PROPER, PDL and TOMAS is illustrated with an already finished complex project: the design of the first automated container terminal in Rotterdam.