This is a Small Business Innovative Research Phase II award to research and develop a decision support software tool utilizing the theory of perturbation analysis (PA) and its extensions for the design and simulation of discrete parts manufacturing systems. In particular, it is expected that the tool will have the following features: It can be adapted to any existing discrete event simulation languages to enhance their outputs with additional performance sensitivity information without the need for brute force repeated simulations. It will be data driven and transparent to the user. It will be applicable to a sufficiently general class of manufacturing systems. It can also be integrated with existing queueing network models of such systems wherever appropriate to avoid duplication of data entry. This proposal demonstrates that the PA theory and its extensions to multiclass situations will make the above objectives attainable.
