In: International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, Vol. 15, No. 6, pages 445-459. 1999.
Abstract: The paper proposes object-oriented Petri nets with changeable structure (OPNs-CS) for effective modeling of production systems with changing structures. Two mechanisms for carrying out the structural changes in OPNs-CS are defined. One is for the modification of message-passing relationships between distinct OPNs and the other is for adding of OPNs to, and the removing of OPNs from, a model. A case study is provided to show that OPNs-CS can cope with both the uncertainties which may exist during the model building phase of a one-of-a-kind production system and the structural changes of the system which often occur while the production system is in operation.
Keywords: object-oriented Petri nets, production system modeling.