Modeling and Simulation Project, COMP-522A

Project Title: Multi Paradigm Modeling and simulation of Engineering Change Management (ECM) Process, using IDEF0, IDEF3, State Transition Petri Nets and Colored Petri Nets.

 

Project Group: 1. Imran Haider Malik (110247905), 2. Imran Majid (260051241)

 

Motivation:

Process planning in manufacturing environment is challenging since it’s iterative, due to engineering changes (ECs). In order to track the impact of engineering changes the modeling and simulation of information flow process with regard to new part planning (N.P.P), is required to be done at different level of abstraction, using different formalisms. This is necessary since the logic of impact trajectory may be seen in one of the lower most levels of abstraction, while the effect of them can be put into interpretable result in another view. This is a typical situation when the part dimensions are changed by the Engineering department for, which effect the process plan with regard to machines chosen to manufacture the part and the time they are booked for those operations. However, the management of the organization might not be interested in the change in dimensions of the part or sub assembly or assembly; they might be interested in the impact the change has in terms of capital to be invested and the departments that are effected.

 

Problem Statement:

There exists an IDEF0 model of the information flow process, of New Part Planning (N.P.P), in the software AIØ WIN® 7[1]. For the initial study purposes and to obtain the feel of different modeling techniques, we have selected six activities with their decompositions to incorporate the hierarchal aspect of the model (The IDEF0 of these activity and their sub activities is included in the appendix A). These six activities are selected in a way that they involve all sorts of relationships among the flow e.g. join and split.

It is desired to translate the reduced model into a dynamic formalism since IDEF0 is a static formalism which signifies only the logical sequence of operations. The need is to elaborate on the dynamic behavior of the system and explain some characteristics which occur in real world, with regard to engineering changes.

 

Proposed Solutions:

In order to bring the process level view of the reduced IDEF0 model, we will use IDEF3 formalism in which time information is additionally required other than the information contained in IDEF0. However, the approach of  Kim, C-H et al (2001) will be used to transform the IDEF0 to IDEF3, which transforms the IDEF0 to IDEF3 based on the assumption that the resources and mechanisms in IDEF0 are time independent and thus can be neglected while transformation to IDEF3. IDEF3 simulation will be done using PROSIM® 7[2]  if possible on its evaluation version. In case the simulation is not possible, we will translate the IDEF3 process model to State Transition Petri nets and analyse the dead locks in the system. Another proposed approach is that the IDEF3 be transformed to Coloured Petri Nets (CPN), the syntax and semantics of which are described by Jensen, K. (1996), from where we will have a compact and more comprehensive view of the actual reduced IDEF0 model.

 

Possible Outcomes:

The outcomes of the whole exercise would be the performance analysis of the reduced IDEF0 model (referred in Appendix A as Activity name A11, with the heading of To work out file of XPart development), in the IDEF3, State Transition Petri nets and Coloured Petri Nets. Conclusions will be drawn with regard to the transformation scheme adopted among the formalisms and the interpretations of the model these formalisms provide, in the context of ECM. Further work will be proposed due to the problems faced in the projects.

 

Deliverables:

A power point presentation will be given at the end of project, along with the models of IDEF0, IDEF3, ST Petri Nets and CPN.

Report     Source Code     Executable idef0transformer     Executable generic PN transformer

For further details kindly contact the authors.

 

Reference:

 

  1. Jensen, K., 1996, “An Introduction to the Practical Use of Coloured Petri Nets”,Department of Computer Science, University of Aarhus, E-mail: kjensen@daimi.aau.dk, WWW: http://www.daimi.aau.dk/~kjensen/

 

  1. Kim, C-H., Yim, D-S., Weston, R. H., 2001, An Integrated use of IDEF0, IDEF3 and Petri net methods in support of business process modelling. Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part E : Journal of Process Mechanical Engineering, Vol 215, pp 317-330.

 

  1. Cassandras, C.G., 1989, Discrete Event Systems, Petri Nets and Timed Models.

 

  1. Elhani, M.A., Rivest, L., 2005. IDEF0 Model of New Part Planning Process, Ecole Technologie Superiore.

 

  1. Mayer, R.H., Menzel, C.P., Painter, M.K., DeWitte, P.S., Perakath, T.B.B., 1995,\In- formation Integration for Concurrent Engineering (IICE) IDEF3 Process Description Capture Method Report", Knowledge Based Systems Inc. (KBSI), Human Resources Directorate Lo- gistics Research Division, Incorporated One KBSI Place 1500, University Drive East College Station, Texas, 77840-2335.

 

  1. Vangheluwe, H., 2005,\System Speci¯cations", Course Notes, Course:Modeling and Simulation (COMP522A), McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

 

  1. Vangheluwe, H., 2005,\The Discrete Events System Speci¯cation (DEVS) for- malism", Course Notes, Course: Modeling and Simulation (COMP522A), McGill University, Montreal, Canada.

 

  1. Zeigler, B.P., Praehofer, P., Kim, T.G., 2000. The foundations of modelling and simulation: Theory of Modelling and Simulation: Integrating Discrete Event and Continuous Complex Dynamic Systems. Academic Press, second edition, 2000. Chapters 1 - 9, 17, 18.

 


[1] Product of Knowledge Based Systems Inc. (KBSI), Texas. http://www.kbsi.com

[2] Product of Knowledge Based Systems Inc. (KBSI), Texas. http://www.kbsi.com