Divide et impera: A flexible integration of layout planning and logistics simulation through data change propagation

The turbulent markets lead to new challenges for today's enterprises, they have to be transformable to stay competitive. Therefore, we developed a new approach that integrates Logistics Simulation and Layout Planning to fulfil the goal of improving the production system. Our approach is based on propagation and transformation of data changes concerning the continuous adaption tasks among the Layout Planning and Logistics Simulation systems. Instead of relying on a tightly integrated global data schema, we connect systems only as far as required by building "bridges" between them. The systems that participate in the integration are kept autonomous. We use several state-of-the-art XML technologies in our integration system.