Simulation economic evaluation: An expert system for workshop simulation

Abstract The job-shop scheduling optimization problem is an example application of Operations Research and Simulation models. This problem has been extensively researched and different models have been presented in the literature for solving different situations. SLAM (Simulation Language for Alternative Modeling) 〈4〉 is a simulation language that can be used to analyze this problem and is now available for microcomputers. However, SLAM, similar to the other specialized simulation languages, requires sophisticated analysts to transcribe the problem in SLAM commands. This paper presents an expert system that can generate SLAM commands for a job-shop planning application where a user with no SLAM or Simulation knowledge can interact directly with a micro-computer to run the SLAM application. The expert system is in the form of a user-friendly conversational program which automatically translates the problem parameters into SLAM commands, executes the SLAM program, and provides an unsophisticated Simulation user with the analysis results.