Monte Carlo simulation modelling of industrial systems

The simulation technique used is a next event Monte Carlo Simulation, with full array of building blocks, animation, graphical interface, unlimited hierarchical decomposition, full connectivity and interactivity with other programs, library based, build in compiled C-like programming language, to mention some of the most important features. The flexible method enables modelling of multi purpose tasks like system availability, on demand failure probability, multiple product flow, loading/storage capacities and spare part optimization. In offshore development projects all these features are used during the concept selection process. There is an interface between the simulation tool and Excel for input data, which makes it easy to structure data, extract data, running sensitivities and customize results presentation.

The simulation tool is built of hierarchical blocks where blocks can be constructed by the user, both regarding interface (pictures etc) and programming the logic of the block. This feature is used to build up the model as a flow network with similar interface as a PFD (process flow diagram). The flow net-work is intended to simplify the comprehension of the availability model for design engineers and management. Although some customers used to reliability block diagrams (RBD), prefer this interface for transparency, showing component redundancy instead of product flow.