Parallel discrete event simulation of manufacturing systems: A technology survey

Parallel discrete event simulation (PDES) refers to a simulation platform initiated by Chandy and Misra [1979]. The basic idea of PDES is that a simulation model is decomposed into submodels which are then run on different processes concurrently. The objective of this paper is to provide a comprehensive overview of PDESʹ use for manufacturing systems. First, the PDES platform and basic analytical methods associated with this platform are briefly introduced, the difficulty of PDES compared with conventional simulation method is discussed. A survey of PDESʹ use in manufacturing systems is then provided, which covers: (1) a summary of different PDES models for different kinds of manufacturing systems, and (2) a comparison of PDES characteristics in the context of decomposition method and synchronization scheme. Based on the survey, it is concluded that using PDES for manufacturing systems has not been successful and its success depends on both the availability of efficient model decomposition method and the improvement of suitable hardware architecture.