Verification and validation activities within a new procedure model for V&V in production and logistics simulation

Verification and Validation (V&V) of simulation models have been strongly investigated in the context of defense applications. Significantly less substantial work can be found for applications in production and logistics, which is surprising when taking into account the massive impact that wrong or inadequate simulation results can have on strategic and investment-related decisions for large production and logistics systems. The authors have, therefore, founded an expert group for this specific topic in the year 2003. The major result of this expert group was the development of a specific procedure model for V&V in the context of simulation for production and logistics, which was documented in a book (in German) and summarized in a paper at the WSC´2008. This paper explains details of the approach, discussing the criteria to be applied when assessing the validity of a model, and providing examples how to conduct V&V with reference to these criteria.