Editorial

Special issue on simulation in production and logistics

The papers assembled in this Special Issue are based on excellent contributions from the 15th ASIM Dedicated Conference on Simulation in Production and Logistics, which took place in October 2013 at the Heinz Nixdorf Institute of the University of Paderborn (Germany). This conference highlights, on a bi-annual basis, the role of simulation as an instrument for decision support from planning, ramp-up, and operation of complex production and logistics systems. While simulation is firmly established as a tool for planning in many companies, the conference has shown that it can also provide important impulses for a continuous improvement during ramp-up and operation. Many new application areas and research topics have been presented there, from issues such as persistent modelling to the technical integration as a decision-support tool.

The selection of contributions invited for this special issue has been made with the intention to show different aspects of new methods and applications. Zhang and Rose as well as Höppe et al use simulation methods to develop and ensure dispatching and scheduling rules for manufacturing systems of different kinds, whereas Clausen and Kaffka and Klaas et al focus on the design and operation of logistics systems. Schlegel et al integrate the consideration of energy demands in the simulation and research hereby in an innovative and rising topic in our area. Boyaci and Wenzel introduce an approach for the autonomous control of production networks, which is evaluated by a simulation approach. Staab et al finally optimize the efficiency of in-plant milk-run systems by adopting the underlying routing strategies. All authors significantly enriched their original contributions for this Special Issue and provide interesting insights in the spectrum of the conference.

The editors hope that you will be enjoying this Special Issue and find valuable aspects in the contributions. Should you feel inspired, the next chance to personally experience the conference environment where these papers originate from is in Autumn 2017 in Kassel, Germany.