A performance analysis tool of discrete-events systems

Abstract

The analysis of the logic correctness of the system and its performance evaluation are usually carried out using, respectively, the Petri nets formalism and the discrete-event simulation. Several tools exist for both. The Platform Independent Petri Net Editor (PIPE) is a free software tool developed in Java for the modelling, simulation and qualitative analysis of Petri nets. It has been designed with an open philosophy so that extensions can be easily incorporated. SIMAN is one of the first discrete-event simulation languages developed. It has extensively proven its power. This paper first presents a module for the PIPE software that allows the automatic generation of SIMAN code from a Petri net. Then, a tool is proposed to aid the performance analysis of manufacturing systems from its SIMAN model. These tools are designed as a support for students in the understanding of the simulation methodology.