Core Manufacturing Simulation Data

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet, but I'm pretty sure I haven't. A little over 3 years ago I attended Winter Sim 2006 in Monterey, CA (nice place by the way) and got introduced to the Core Manufacturing Simulation Data (CMSD) specification from NIST. This spec was supposed to act as a neutral data format for holding manufacturing simulation.

I watched its progress over the years, hoping at some point to be able to apply some of my past work translating Value Stream Maps into QUEST models to be generically available to any simulation package.

Cut to March of 2009, and it seemed like the spec was getting pretty close to being a standard. NIST had the spec in to SISO for review and eventual vote, and my boss saw a presentation by Swee Leong from NIST, and was impressed enough by it to allow me to start working on a CMSD translator for Value Stream Mapping.

So I got started right away, first stepping back and looking at what this translator should be. I should mention that the CMSD format is technically set to be a UML standard, but along with that will come an XML schema. So anyways, long story short, I hadn't done much work with parsing XML files, and had some experience kludging together solutions to build XML files, and didn't like the idea of implementing a parser/writer for each translator I might write.

So I decided to build a centralized CMSD XML parser/generator, utilizing Microsoft's built-in DOM libraries to do the actual file I/O from/to XML files, and I would write the code to translate XML elements into instances of CMSD classes. So I built that central tool as a COM/ActiveX class, using VB6 (I know, could I possibly use something older?). So to read a CMSD file I just have to create a new CMSD object and tell it to read the file, and I get all the CMSD data in a nice, easy to program against object model. And, I only have to write and maintain one XML I/O code base, which makes me happy.

So I called this class the CMSD API (very original, I know) and started writing translators. To cut my teeth on the standard, I started off just building something to build a QUEST model from a CMSD API object, just using a simple XML file that NIST had provided to me to demonstrate the XML format. That one translator has turned into about a dozen different translators, some proofs of concept, and some potentially useful tools.

So here, after six paragraphs, is where I get to my point. We're reaching the stage where these translators are ready for some public consumption. They're hopefully useful enough that people can use them, though because the CMSD standard isn't really set in stone yet, I'll refrain from calling them CMSD-based tools; rather they're just tools that utilize a custom XML format.

Okay, so seven paragraphs in, and my point is that I'm looking for simulation users interested in trying this software out. I can't guarantee I can take everyone, and ideally you should be a user of more than one of the following tools:
1. DELMIA QUEST
2. eVSM
3. ProModel
4. Arena
5. Excel
6. Simio
7. FlexSim

Now, if you only use one of the above-listed simulation packages, that's okay. I've also been working on a standalone CMSD editor, that hopefully in the future can take the place of a simulation package builder interface (and just use the simulation package as a solver). Also, if you're good at programming in VBA and would like to be able to build your own translators with my CMSD API, let me know, as I'd like to get feedback on the quality of the methods in the API.

So if you're interested in joining a beta test, contact me. In the meantime you can see the documentation for these tools grow as I write it (thank you, Google Docs):
Documentation