2008 IEEE Pacific-Asia Workshop on Computational Intelligence and Industrial Application

Research on Plant Layout and Production Line Running Simulation in Digital

Factory Environment
Ting Yang, Dinghua Zhang, Bing Chen, Shan Li
Key Laboratory of Contemporary Design and Integrated Manufacturing Technology
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Ministry of Education
Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xian 710072, Shaanxi Province, China
tyang@mail.nwpu.edu.cn
production system directly after product design and
process planning, because a scientific test platform is
absent. Actually, most errors are generated in design and
planning phase, but they are detected and solved in
manufacturing phase. The cost of modification is great,
and time to market is prolonged. Our goal is to verify,
simulate, analyze, and optimize manufacturing processes
in digital virtual environment without disturb actual
production system. Moreover, through digital testing, the
reliability of physical producing system is improved.
Anyway digital factory can expand into the whole PLM
and become a new producing organization technique [2].
In the following section, we describe overall
framework of plant layout configuration and running
simulation in digital factory environment. The integration
relations with other information systems are also
discussed in this section. In section 3, modeling method of
digital factory system (DFS) is brought forward based on
Object-Oriented technology. Manufacturing Resource
Library is raised to manage resources in production
process. In section 4, plant layout is configured, evaluated
and analyzed in digital environment according to some
principles. In section 5, production running simulation
system is presented in detail. A production process can be
dynamically simulated and analyzed by means of digital
factory technology. An example is given to demonstrate
running simulation in section 6. In the end, we conclude
the paper.

Abstract
Digital factory is a new technology to construct a
virtual plant environment to implement integration
between process planning and manufacturing execution.
Object-Oriented technology is introduced to simulate
complicated discrete-events system with constructing four
basic objects including Product, Process, Planning and
Resource in digital factory environment. Especially
manufacturing resource library (MRL) based on visual
display and single data source technology is built to
contain all resources to support manufacturing process.
The manufacturing resources can be imported and
configured to construct a virtual digital factory. By means
of digital factory technology, product design,
manufacturing process, production planning can be
simulated, analyzed and optimized in digital factory
through data integration with other information systems.
Therefore the uncertainty between design-planning and
product manufacturing is reduced, and success rate and
reliability of manufacturing system can be improved.
Altogether digital factory technology is a new production
organizational mode which runs through the whole
product lifecycle.

1. Introduction
With development of digital engineering and network
technology, many enterprises introduce information
systems such as CAM, CAPP, PDM, MES and ERP.
Consequently the capacity of developing and producing
increases greatly. Though a large part of these systems is
already supported by digital tools, these various phases
are not integrated and thus are generally carried out in
isolation [1]. Since lack of communications between
planning phase and producing phase, arisen problems are
merely solved in their respective field. Therefore digital
factory technology is introduced to act as a bridge
between them. Digital factory provide a translating
process from the product design and planning to the
manufacturing execution. Nowadays product is put into
978-0-7695-3490-9/08 $25.00 2008 IEEE
DOI 10.1109/PACIIA.2008.159

2. Overall framework of plant layout and

running simulation
Advanced manufacturing is an integrated data system.
There is massive data to be processed and transferred in
the manufacturing information system, such as product,
process, production planning and controlling and
resource. These data are created and saved in some
systems. Product information is saved in format as BOM
in PDM system. Manufacturing process is planned in
CAPP system and also saved in PDM through integration

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can be configured and adjusted in DFS with MRL and

production process from PDM/CAPP. MRL, process,
production controlling and layout can be integrated in
production running simulation module. Consequently
dynamic simulation process will be evaluated and
analyzed. Then production system can be optimized to
meet various objectives, for instance, cost, efficiency.
Furthermore production process may be repeated iterated.
Finally optimized results will be returned to PDM/CAPP,
ERP and MES.

with CAPP. Production planning and controlling data is

built in ERP and MES system.
As a part of the enterprise information system, DFS
shouldnt be isolated and must be integrated with other
information systems, as is shown in Figure 1. MRL is
constructed to manage all resource to support production,
e.g. machines, cutters, fixtures. By means of visualization
technology, manufacturing resource model could display
their status change through intelligent maintenance
according to related information from DNC. Plant layout

Figure 1 Overall framework of plant layout and running simulation

All resource to support manufacturing process

including machines, fixtures, workshops, conveyors,
human, tools and so on, to answer by which to produce.
DFS simulates and analyzes production system based
on construction relations with P3R (Product, Process,
Planning and Resource). As is described in section 2,
product, process and planning have been managed
respectively in PDM, CAPP and MES. However
manufacturing resources is lack of an effective
management tool and resource management is dispersive
in different branches. Thus it is important to build a
manufacturing resource library based on network sharing
and single data source technology. Because manufacturing
resources is massive data, MRL should be built by stages.
In primary stage, we think over manufacturing
equipments library firstly since manufacturing equipments
are most important basic resource to represent production
capacity in a manufacturing enterprise.
Manufacturing resources are active elements in
production process, because their status changes at any
moment. Thereby manufacturing resource models should
describe time-varying information. Support vector
machine and fuzzy neural networks are introduced to
collect and analyze state data from production site. Some
information chromosome models act as elements to

3. Modeling technology of DFS

Nowadays, there are many simulation methods and
theories, for example, Object-Oriented technology, Petri
net, integrated definition method (IDEF), natural
information analysis method (NIAM) [3]. Production
system is a complicated system including many factors,
and it is these factors and their interaction that maintains
production running. In this paper, Object-Oriented
technology is introduced to model and analyze
complicated discrete production system. In DFS,
components of production system can be divided to four
basic objects:
(1) Product object
Product geometrical and non-geometry information
answer what to produce.
(2) Process object
Manufacturing process information answers how to
produce.
(3) Production planning object
Production planning and controlling information
answer when and where to produce.
(4) Manufacturing resource object

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maintain manufacturing resource model intelligently

according to working status information. Moreover state
changes can be described intuitively by means of
visualization technology.
MRL in digital factory should contain not only
equipments geometrical digital model but also its
attributes about manufacturing property, such as working
table size and bearing. Therefore geometrical model and
their attributes should be associated in manufacturing
resource entity (See in Figure 2). It need pay attention that
equipment has many attributes and different roles of an
enterprise require diverse attributes. For example, process
planner cares manufacturing capacity, but equipment
maintenance man needs to know relative records.
Therefore multi-view mapping technology is applied to
construct equipment attributes management architecture to
meet different roles [4~6]. Data of manufacturing resource
can be transferred and shared through heredity, aberrance,
derivative, aggregation, and distributed mapping. It is
shown in Figure 3 that in first tier some general attributes
to describe equipments basic property, such as name,
serial number, type. In second tier, attributes are divided
to several categories according to different roles, such as
process planner, maintenance man and fixture designer.
Some spare interfaces are reserved for other roles. Thus,
through cataloguing and classification, MRL is built and
managed. By means of network sharing technologies,
MRL can become a single data source. In the future, other
manufacturing resource, such as tool and fixtures, should
be brought into MRL to implement unified management.

Plant layout is an important factor to competitive

power of an enterprise and its products. Researches show
that about 20%~50% cost used in material flow, but
reasonable layout can save 10%~30% cost [2]. Because
entities in plant have interaction relations in term of
production process, configuration about production
system is not only a geometrical problem but also a
production running problem. Therefore it is a NPcompleteness problem [7]. Digital factory technology can
provide a digital environment to deal with plant layout to
construct 2D or 3D digital plant model. Workshop digital
model can be built according to architectural drawing.
Manufacturing resources source from MRL are
configured in digital workshop according to their
locations in layout drawing. Then a 3D virtual plant is
built in digital factory to describe an actual plant in 3D
digital environment (Figure 4. shows an example). Plant
layout design and virtual visit can be carried out in digital
plant environment too.

Manufacturing
Resource
Library

Figure 4 the 3D digital plant

Especially layout may be adjusted sometimes due to

product and process updates. Here layout planners need to
consider related equipments capacity attributes. Plant
layout in DFS is easy to inquire about machines attributes
through its digital model associated with their attributes. If
some machines have to be moved, carrying routes need to
be planned carefully. During equipments moving,
machines and their affiliated equipments such as electrical
or controlling cabinets must be considered to avoid
collisions with other machines, columns, pipes and so on.
These problems are difficult to deal with previously.
Nowadays, route planning in DFS is shown in Figure 5.
When a machine will be moved, plant planner drags the
digital model to plan carrying routes, while collisions can
be detected through highlight display. In this way a route
without collisions may be acquired.
Digital factory provides for plant layout not only a
digital description space but also a digital design
environment. But plant design is a complicated problem,
even in digital conditions. It must keep to some principles
to achieve high production efficiency and the low cost of

Cataloging & Classification

2D/3D Geometrical Model

Attribute Table
TableXLS
XLS
Manufacturing
Resource Entity

Attribute Association

Figure 2 Construction of manufacturing resource library

Name
Type
Number

Gross power

Manufacturing
Size

Working
stroke

Spindle speed

Label

State

Process

Fixture

General
attributes
Maintenance

Manufacturing
Weight

Rotating range

Date

Spare interfaces

Figure 3 Cataloguing and classification of manufacturing

resource attributes

4. Plant layout configuration and design

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[8]

transportation between equipments in long-term operation

Collision Detection
Figure 5 Carrying routes planning in DFS

Evaluation and analysis of the layout plan should be

made in the aspects of quantitative, qualitative and
ergonomics engineering. These three factors are

interactive and the considerations should be made

integrally, and the relationship with them is showed in
Figure 6.

Figure 6 Main steps for the plant-layout in the DFS

improve success rate and reliability of manufacturing

system.
Production running simulation is a subsystem of DFS,
which is supported with MRL, PDM/CAPP, MES, ERP
and plant layout (see in Figure 7). Firstly, P3R is
integrated in a digital model with PERT (Program
Evaluation and Review Technique) to determine their
relationships and simulate production system running.
Some running state data can be exported, such as rate of
machine utilization, efficiency of material flow. These
data will be evaluate and analyze with some methods, for
example, grey model, support vector machine and fuzzy
comprehensive evaluation. Then production system can be
optimized with some optimization algorithms to meet
multi-objective, e.g. cost, efficiency. Thus production
process may be repeated iterated through simulation,
evaluation and optimization until production target is
satisfied. Finally optimized production process and
planning will be returned to PDM/CAPP, ERP and MES.
Production process and plan to have been validated will
be put into production. Consequently, risk and cost of
manufacturing process may be decreased.

(1) Quantitative analysis: interactive relations between

equipments or units are mainly considered.
(2) Qualitative analysis: it is that is the simulation of
the operation on the machine tools and move along a
certain path in order to observe whether they could collide
with other objects.
(3) Ergonomics analysis: through the operation
simulation, the factors such as the space of the working
place, the operation of the equipments and the
environments are considered in order to acquire more safe
and convenient operations.

5. Production running simulation in digital

factory
Production running simulation can construct a digital
validation platform for product design, process plan and
production controlling to analyze and optimize production
process. Running simulation will compress and bring
forward production process in order to decrease the
uncertainty between design-planning and production and

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Figure 7 Production Running Simulation

bottlenecks in the production process can be located and

remove.

Production running process is a complicate system, we

need to use digital factory software, such as Delmia,
Tecnomatix, to simulate and analyze. Certainly, secondary
development must be implemented to meet actual
situations through compiling proper logic and control
strategy. During simulating process, we can export the
performance status of production process through some
charts and tables. Some parameters can be visual display,
such as equipment utilization ratio, production cycle,
production logs, to describe production running state.
Eventually through study simulation result, we can
analyze the production process in following aspects.
(1) Production plan and control strategy
Production plan and control strategy are important
parts of Industrial Engineering, and the current method is
mainly by means of ERP and MES. Since the effects of
quantities made by the stochastic factors are not
considered, it is difficult that the production plan exactly
instructs the actual production. While production running
simulation in digital factory considers various running
parameters such as equipment failure rate, authenticity
and reliability of simulation process can be ensured. The
industrial engineers can find all kinds of stochastic factors
affecting the plan by statistics so that the plan can be
made and controlled accurately.
(2) Production line balance
Digital factory technology can analyze and simulate
highly complex production system and it is useful to solve
the problems about production line balance. By means of
production running simulation model, the regulations of
the materials flow can be defined and the effects of the
production efficiency can also be confirmed. Thus

6. Example
Example is a production process of compressor
impellers. Production running process is simulated
according to its process route using Plant Simulation of
Tecnomatix. Simulation model is shown Figure 8.
Manufacturing equipments and human are expressed with
SingleProc. Production running process is described with
developed control strategy, which is shown as Method in
Figure 8. During simulation running, utilization ratio of
some equipment could show in Figure 9. By means of
utilization ratio, we can balance equipment manufacturing
capacity. Moreover we can optimize production sequence
using genetic algorithm inter embed in software.

Figure 8 Compressor impellers production process

simulation in Plant Simulation of Tecnomatix

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to the facility layout problem using simulated annealing.

Computers in Industry, Vol.36, No.1-2, pp.125-132.
[8] Worn H, Frey D, Keitel J(2000). Digital Factory-Planning
and running enterprises of the future. Industrial Electronic
Society, IECON.26th Annual Conference of the IEEE,
2.pp.1286-1291.

Figure 9 Utilization ratio of some equipment

7. Conclusion
We carry through this research based on some actual
problems in manufacturing process. Manufacturing
resource library is a basis of digital factory. Digital plant
through configuration can provide a virtual environment
to adjust and design plant layout. Production running
simulation can analyze and optimize manufacturing
process. A digital validation platform can improve
reliability of production process and plan. In summary
digital factory technology can promote productivity of a
manufacturing enterprise greatly, with more and more
deeply applying in actual production. Construction of
process plan platform and integration with enterprise
information systems are important research directions.

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