Modeling Operational Control in Discrete-Event Logistics Systems and Their Digital Twins

In manufacturing systems, operational control plays a crucial role in ensuring proper functioning and efficiency. Traditional approaches to modeling operational controllers in simulation often suffer both from inability to properly represent decisions as they are made in real systems and from rigidity and lack of adaptability to changing system requirements and configuration during their design. This paper explores a novel approach to designing and implementing operational controllers in discrete-event simulation based on the introduction of control policies as standardized structures that explicitly integrate operational control decision-making into DES models. Standard structures allow for easy integration with optimization tools, facilitating the exploration of different control policies during the design of a new system. The use of control policies also has important implications for the development of digital twins of manufacturing systems, as it helps align the way systems control is designed with the control of real systems.