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Current developments in Germany have led to severe consequences for the configuration of working times of medical and nursing personnel in hospitals. They underline the necessity to arrange work processes and person- nel employment as efficiently as possible. In this context, the current project "Process Optimization and Efficient Personnel Employment in Hospitals" has set the goal of developing a simulation-based procedure for the analysis of working time model. This procedure shall which can be used to explore the advantages and possibilities of working time models in hospitals based on simulation investigations and to derive configuration recommendations. The flexible alignment of the personnel capacity with the capacity requirements for patient treatment is used to achieve a high degree of patient-oriented service in medical tasks in order to help hospitals efficiently employ available personnel resources as well as to realize personnel-oriented goals. This article will intro- duce the developed concept for a simulation-based configuration of working times.

The short-lived nature of products requires production enterprises to plan new production systems in ever shorter intervals. The enterprises are thus prompted to improv their planning processes and in particular to shorten their planning times. Computer supported planning tools can be used to develop planning alternatives and to examine them, using simulation, with respect to their dynamic attributes. A substantial problem can be seen in the conception of a hybrid assembly system containing a similar amount of automated and manual stations. The procedure PAMELA was developed at the ifab-Institute of Human and Industhal Engineering at the University of Karlsruhe for the design of suitable planning solutions for hybrid assembly systems (Muller 2002; Zulch. Muller 200la).This procedure is based on the description of work content and the dependencies of assembly operations as well as several layered precedence diagrams. Simulation is called upon for the assessment and choice of alternative planning solutions. The use of the procedure PAMELA will be demonstrated in this article using an application example.

During a project in the frame of the European Leonardo-da-Vinci-Programme five simulation games have been developed in order to engage awareness of the participants for problems in real production processes. The games focus on different areas of the production environment and are based on a common scenario: the optimisation and redesign of a bicycle production. The simulation games have been played by both industrial managers and students and could succeed in team oriented education. Additionally, the completion of a book describing the games and including software versions of the used simulation tools enables self-training in the field of production management. In this paper the common scenario of the simulation games will be presented. Two selected simulation games will be arranged according to a game classification scheme in order to characterize the games. The advantages and disadvantages of the two different kinds of learning methods — self-training and team oriented education — are also shown with the help of the classification scheme.

This paper addresses the benefit analysis for the integration of workflow management tools. A special focus is set on non-productive tasks, such as service and administration. An example is described that uses an evaluation of a process chain in customer order processing of an aluminium factory with two different levels of detail. An overall examination is done first, in order to identify possible points of improvement in the process chain. Then, a detailed analysis of these subtasks is performed. The two examinations are performed with different simulation tools by two research teams. Their findings are combined in a proof scenario to show the expected performance of the final order processing system.

This paper discusses a process-oriented approach for designing organizational structures of production systems. Based on a suitable characterization of order related processes on one hand, and the personnel on the other hand, organizational structures with a high performance can be defined. The concept of shaping process-oriented organizational structures is connected to a simulation-aided approach in order to evaluate the dynamic behavior of planned production systems and to perform the planning procedure in a flexible and efficient way. The dynamic analyses are carried out using the simulation tool FEMOS.

The integrated simulation game for planning and reorganizing production systems has been developed at the ifab-institute in order to engage the awareness of the players for actual problems in real production systems. During the planning game the participants have to act on operative level as well as on strategic issues. First they have to plan and control the production of an existing assembly system for producing bicycles in planning teams. The system is modeled using the simulation tool FEMOS. Running the factory the teams are going to detect weak points inside the existing system. This experience is the basis for reorganizing the assembly system afterwards. The paper consists of demonstrating the principle structure of the planning game, the material used as well as an illustration of different planning results obtained by playing the game with students and professionals.

This paper discusses an object-oriented approach applying an integrated database for production systems. The basis for integration is an object-oriented Product/ Production-Model (PPM) which has been developed at an interdisciplinary research center of the University of Karlsruhe. Based on this object-oriented PPM, new ways of organizing engineering processes become possible. By using predefined methods of the database objects, the development of modular software tools is enabled. The common database ensures redundancy-free data management, uniform data structures for all relevant views and avoids repeated input of basic data. As an application for the described methods, the paper discusses a new planning approach for the design of production systems based on the PPM and an integrated computer aided library of planning methods.

Market dynamics call for a high degree of adaptability on the side of the companies. Reacting quickly and in a flexible way to changes of customers requirements is a decisive performance indicator. With these changes it becomes more and more important to employ cost intensive personnel resources in the most effective way. Even in the case of a newly developed production system the determination of the future personnel structure is a complex planning problem. Re-organization of personnel structures needs to consider all vocational restrictions and personal preferences of the employed persons. In order to solve this complex planning problem, an approach for systematic re-organization of personnel structures was developed. This method is able to adapt personnel structures to the continuously changing general conditions by observing economical and logistical goal achievements.

Life Cycle Engineering of complex products traditionally does not aim at complete product reuse or reutilization but on that of parts and components. Therefore, disassembly is inevitably necessary, which underlines the central position of disassembly in Sustainable Life Cycle Engineering. It is uncontested that disassembly is, in comparison to assembly, charged with uncertainty. In order to consider this uncertainty, various approaches have been developed. One of these are adaptive dynamic process plans, which allow to derive optimal disassembly sequences depending on the actual disassembly state. Following this idea, two problems have to be solved. The first one is to develop a modelization of this uncertainty and of possible disassembly sequences following a certain disassembly state. On the other hand, it is necessary to collect knowledge about the actual state of the disassembly process and all relevant decision parameters. Especially Stochastic Disassembly Networks seem to be an appropriate approach to cover the first problem. Solving the second problem requires continuous interaction and communication between the disassembly worker and the dynamically developing process plan. This interaction is the basis for a suitable decision making, e.g. changing the disassembly strategy or breaking off disassembly with final removal of harmful substances.

This paper discusses a simulation aided planning game in the field of redesigning work structures. The game deals with a bicycle production and mainly covers the following three aspects: to enhance the understanding of problems and solving in the field of work structuring, to enable teamwork practise and to awake interest in using simulation tools for analysis of production systems. The planning game is supported by a guideline of work structuring for a suitable procedure and the simulation system FEMOS for dynamical analysis of planned systems.

Due to increasing international competition, productive enterprises are currently searching for measures to improve their order processing. As the major potentialities for further improvements are strongly connected to the organization of production systems, the organizational performance has to be investigated and evaluated.