The Integration of 3-D Visualization into the Simulation-based Planning Process of Logistics Systems

The integration of information and communication technology into existing business processes effects all areas of a company including factory planning. The structure of the process of change is based on model-supported processes as well as tools and techniques that are already in use. These include established discrete event simulation tools that have been used in the area of production and logistics planning for several years, and innovative visualization techniques such as 3-D animation, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR). Visualization has become very necessary in the planning, realization and operation of a factory because the data for the different target groups within a company, from the operating staff up to management, has to be processed into realizable information. The authors, motivated by this initial situation, have placed the conceptual universality of the use of methods in the foreground, using distributed architecture and the targeted use of 3-D modeling in logistics planning as an add-on to discrete event simulation. This article introduces a generally applicable concept for the user- defined mapping of discrete event simulation models onto animation models, describes the aspects of realization, and considers into an animation pipeline.