Modelling of Production Management Solutions: TidSim Newspaper Production Simulator

Simulation is a computerized modelling tool which can be applied to describe the production activities, resources, and timing, in for instance newspaper production. The topic of our project, production management systems (PMS), is a new concept in print media research. Simulation is a promising method for defining processes, variables and models and for testing complex effects over the whole production chain. The TidSim simulator was developed to cover the central production stages, to incorporate essential activities in the job flow and resourcing, and to perform monitoring, scheduling, product structuring, and some management functions. The first of the earliest results are here reported. Three key topic areas have been tested: a) Global information interchange with a five window module, b) The effects of newspaper physical structure and press configurations, c) Prepress back-end and scheduling. The work with the TidSim simulator system, concept and its coming successor systems continues. We follow up the penetrating of local PMS-modules and functions in the numerous commercial production systems. Since it is an object-oriented system, this simulator is a flexible method of approaching real production management modules and systems.