RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 An agent-based simulator for quantifying the cost of uncertainty in production systems
A1 Costas-Gual, José
A1 Puche Regaliza, Julio César
A1 Ponte, Borja
A1 Gupta, Mahesh C.
K1 Agent-based modelling
K1 Model-driven decision support system
K1 Petri nets
K1 Product-mix problem
K1 Simulation
K1 Theory of constraints
K1 Economía
K1 Economy
K1 Informática
K1 Computer science
AB Product-mix problems, where a range of products that generate different incomes compete for alimited set of production resources, are key to the success of many organisations. In theirdeterministic forms, these are simple optimisation problems; however, the consideration of stochasticity may turn them into analytically and/or computationally intractable problems. Thus,simulation becomes a powerful approach for providing efficient solutions to real-world productmix problems. In this paper, we develop a simulator for exploring the cost of uncertainty in theseproduction systems using Petri nets and agent-based techniques. Specifically, we implement astochastic version of Goldratt’s PQ problem that incorporates uncertainty in the volume and mixof customer demand. Through statistics, we derive regression models that link the net profit to thelevel of variability in the volume and mix. While the net profit decreases as uncertainty grows, wefind that the system is able to effectively accommodate a certain level of variability when using aDrum-Buffer-Rope mechanism. In this regard, we reveal that the system is more robust to mixthan to volume uncertainty. Later, we analyse the cost-benefit trade-off of uncertainty reduction,which has important implications for professionals. This analysis may help them optimise theprofitability of investments. In this regard, we observe that mitigating volume uncertainty shouldbe given higher consideration when the costs of reducing variability are low, while the efforts arebest concentrated on alleviating mix uncertainty under high costs.
PB Elsevier
SN 1569-190X
YR 2023
FD 2023-02
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10259/7441
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10259/7441
LA eng
NO This article was financially supported by the State Research Agency of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/50110 0 011033), via the project SPUR, with grant ref. PID2020–117021GB-I00. In addition, the authors greatly appreciate the valuable and constructive feedback received from the Editorial team of this journal and two anonymous reviewers in the different stages of the review process.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Burgos
RD 04-may-2024