Benchmarking Simulation Software Capabilities Against Distributed Control Requirements: FlexSim vs AnyLogic

Industry 4.0 communication and data management technologies enable the development of distributed, product-driven control architectures, where intelligent products can play active roles in manufacturing control processes. Although simulation is a widespread practice to test, evaluate, compare and validate different design alternatives, there is still a lack of papers that assess and discuss the capabilities of available simulation software to meet and implement the requirements of such distribution as a design alternative. This paper provides an analysis of distributed, product driven control requirements and benchmarks them against the capabilities of two commercially available simulation software, namely FlexSim and AnyLogic. A comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of each software is provided through a case study.