In today’s market, sustainability has become an important competitive priority, affecting the way manufacturing companies need to develop their production systems. Increased external pressure from stakeholders, customers, law and regulations, as well as the undeniable consequences of the environmental crisis, causes a need for more sustainable production patterns. This affects manufacturing companies, since the social and environmental dimension of sustainability no longer can be ignored if companies want to retain their competitive position. Therefore, this thesis proposes a conceptual modeling framework that includes both sustainability and operational goals, with purpose to support manufacturers who want to develop sustainable production systems with the help of discrete event simulation. Empirical evidence from Swedish automotive industry indicates an unlocked potential in applying this framework to a discrete event simulation project, and findings in current research shows that alignment of sustainability and operational goals during production system development can help manufacturing companies achieve increased competitive advantage. However, there is two limitations to current knowledge; firstly, on how to align sustainability and operation goals in the early phases of a discrete event simulation project, namely at conceptual modeling; secondly, a lack of focus on conceptual modeling in discrete event simulation. In order to examine how to address this gap, a case study was conducted within the Swedish automotive industry, along with a literature study. As guidance in this work, four research questions were formulated and answered: RQ 1:    Why is the alignment between sustainability and operational goals important in development of production systems? RQ 2:    What sustainability goals may be included in a conceptual model in development of production systems? RQ 3:    What operational goals may be included in a conceptual model in development of production systems? RQ 4:    How can operational and sustainability goals be aligned in a conceptual model in development of production systems? As for the environmental dimension of sustainability, the goals that could be included at conceptual modeling are: pollution; emissions; and resource consumption. The most commonly involved operational goals at conceptual modeling are: quality and design; throughput; production layout and flow; automation levels; production volume; cycle times; lead times and change-over times; material handling; buildings and plant properties; storage and stock; capacity; price and costs. / Under de senaste åren har den alltmer påtagliga klimatkrisen och ändrade krav från intressenter, kunder och lagar, kommit att påverka faktorerna för hur tillverkande företag konkurrerar. Inom den tillverkande industrin finns det inte längre utrymme att se bort ifrån metoder som skapar hållbara tillverkningsmönster och produkter, i och med att hållbarhet numera även är kopplat till företagets förmåga att konkurrera. I linje med detta, föreslår denna uppsats ett ramverk för hur hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål kan inkluderas i den konceptuella fasen av en diskret händelsesimulering. Syftet med ramverket är att ge företag ett verktyg som kan appliceras vid utveckling av hållbara produktionssystem med hjälp av diskret händelsesimulering. Empiriska data från tillverkningsindustrin indikerar att det finns dold potential för applicering av det föreslagna ramverket inom projekt som använder sig av diskret händelsesimulering. Fynd i nutida forskning visar att en förening av hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål under utveckling av produktionssystem kan leda till att tillverkande företag uppnår fler konkurrensfördelar. Däremot saknas forskning på hur hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål skulle kunna förenas i en konceptuell modell under de tidiga faserna av ett simuleringsprojekt. Dessutom visar tidigare forskning att konceptuell modellering inte får tillräckligt med fokus vid simuleringsprojekt. I och med att den konceptuella modellen är den mest avgörande fasen i simuleringen kan det anses motiverat att förena hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål redan i denna fas, dock krävs mer forskning på området för att detta ska kunna realiseras. Med denna information som bakgrund genomfördes en litteraturstudie på området och en fallstudie inom den svenska tillverkningsindustrin. Som vägledning i forskningsstudien formulerades och besvarades fyra frågeställningar: Fråga 1:     Varför bör hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål förenas vid utveckling av produktionssystem? Fråga 2:     Vilka hållbarhetsmål är möjliga att inkludera i en konceptuell modell vid utveckling av produktionssystem? Fråga 3:     Vilka operationella mål är möjliga att inkludera i en konceptuell modell vid utveckling av produktionssystem? Fråga 4:     Hur kan hållbarhetsmål och operationella mål bli inkluderade i en konceptuell modell vid utveckling av produktionssystem? De miljömål som är möjliga att inkludera i en konceptuell modell är föroreningar, utsläpp och resursförbrukningar. De vanligaste operationella målen att inkludera i en konceptuell model är kvalitet och design, produktionstakt, produktionslayout och produktionsflöde, automationsnivåer, produktionsvolym, cykeltider, ledtider och ställtider, materialhantering, byggnader och fabriksegenskaper, lager och förråd, kapacitet, pris och kostnader.

With the increase in food consumption, new ideas, and technologies began to be developed. Inaddition, the developments generated by Industry 4.0 technologies have started to be applied tothe entire manufacturing sector and the indoor farming industry, which is currently trending.Many studies and articles have been prepared on this subject, and the main goal of each study isto produce quality products and to ensure continuity in production to cover the nonendingincrease in demand. This paper discusses how simulation technology, which is one of the industry 4.0 technologies,can be used in the production system development of the indoor farming industry. According tomany researchers, the biggest obstacle for the vertical farming industry is start-up cost, andsimulation technologies can be the solution for this since it allows future production systems tobe analyzed without any investment. To have a clear vision of how these technologies can beadapted in the indoor farming industry, this paper will find the answers to these questions, RQ1:How can simulation facilitate production system development and Industry 4.0 projects withinthe indoor farming industry? RQ2: What are the benefits and challenges when using simulationas a tool for production system development within the indoor farming industry? To reach thegoal of this paper, the case study method was used, and an indoor farming company was selectedto get more realistic data about the vertical farming system. BlueRedGold AB is a start-upcompany in the indoor farming industry, and it has a huge growth potential since they aim totransform its current production lines to be fully automated. Many articles and studies were usedto approach the solution of the research questions from a more technical and academic point ofview, and the analysis of these articles was carried out with the structured literature review method. After conducting this research, answers have been obtained for the research questions. Theauthors' solution to the layout issue, one of the case company's main challenges as indicated inthis study, was developed after extensive simulation model testing. As highlighted in this paper,it has been stated by many researchers, there are several simulation approaches to follow.However, the authors have developed a simulation modeling approach to be followed in theindoor vertical farming industry to overcome the complexity of these systems as well as thesimulation program complexity. In addition, several challenges and benefits have beenhighlighted in this paper such as the lack of ready models of the equipment used in indoorfarming which requires a knowledge of a programing language to overcome. Finally, despitechallenges, simulation technology can provide an applicable solution for production systemproblems of vertical farming companies/organizations to obtain continuous improvementphilosophy which is the main principle of Lean thinking. The generated simulation model in thisthesis project was successfully implemented, demonstrating how this technology might be aneffective solution for complex production systems as in the indoor farming sector.