SD Builder®: A production rules-based tool for on-line simulation, decision making and discrete process control

The paper presents and discusses a structure and components of a distributed decision-making system for complex discrete systems (CDSs) and processes control. The decision-making nucleus of the system—system dynamics builder (SD Builder)—is described. The SD Builder is based on a hierarchical object-based representation of a CDS and on a production rules-based representation of discrete processes. It allows the using of on-line simulations, state-graph search, expert systems and other methods for decision making. A conceptual prototype of a sawmill in a timber factory illustrates the concepts described in the paper. In a case of a manufacturing system, the decision-making system makes a part of a manufacturing execution system (MES).