Cut-to-size plants are very complex systems, which are used to process several kinds of panels. The acquisition, planning, implementation and operation of these systems impose lots of challenges. To support the process from retail to operation of cut-to-size plants, a new simulation based decision support tool has been developed. This planning tool offers entirely new opportunities for system experts to model, animate, simulate and emulate cut-to-size processes. In this paper, we discuss centrally and hierarchically controlled real time systems and derive a conceptual design to explain the implemented reproduction of the virtual system. We introduce the system architecture for our simulation based decision support tool and examine our approach to model largescale plant systems. Apart from this, we present our method to process the orders which are generated on the control system and to handle them as discrete event tasks in the virtual system. Finally, based on the findings of the realization and testing of the tool, this paper discusses the opportunities arising from this approach as well as its future potential.

The partly outsourcing of value creation processes to low-wage countries yields opportunities to cut manufacturing costs dramatically on one hand. On the other hand, these companies incur higher logistics costs due to an increased logistical complexity. Usually the transportation processes are planned in an ad-hoc manner on a local basis. Consequently one can observe a huge majority of all goods being transported directly from plant to plant by unefficient means of transport. One solution for this dilemma would be the joint usage of multimodal logistics systems which is very often inhibited by the need for close cooperation and high coordination efforts. In order to facilitate this process, this paper proposes an approach to use discrete event simulation for supporting the evaluation of different layouts of multi-company multimodal logistics systems. The novelty of this technique is the opportunity to analyze multiple dimensions of a given complex logistics scenario. By contrast to known analytic techniques the methodology not only captures the economic aspect of this issue but is also able to evaluate the ecological and logistical perspective.