Discrete event simulation is an established methodology for investigating the dynamic behavior of complex manufacturing and logistics systems. Traditionally, simulation experts conduct experiments for predetermined system specifications focusing on single model aspects and specific analysis questions. In addition to that, the concept of data farming and knowledge discovery is an ongoing research issue that consists of broad scale experimentation and data mining assisted analysis of massive simulation output data. As an extension to this approach, we propose a concept for investigating the robustness of complex manufacturing and logistic systems which are often very sensitive to variation and noise. Based on Taguchi’s loss function, we developed a concept including data farming and visual analytics methodologies to investigate sources of variation in a model and the factor values that make a configuration robust. The concept is demonstrated on an exemplary case study model.
