Introduction to the use of activity cycles as a basis for system's decomposition and simulation

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of activity cycles and discuss their use as the basis for the decomposition of complex systems. Furthermore, it is shown that activity cycles provide a sound and logical basis for system simulation. Activity cycles are defined and illustrated in the context of a simple production system. The simple rules necessary to simulate a system, based upon an activity cycle diagram, are given and used in simulating the production system. The production system is then expanded to demonstrate the power of activity cycle concepts to handle complex problems.