Virtual and
extended enterprises
In
NGMS we believe that the future for manufacturing lies with new
forms of manufacturing strategies based on global networks of
self-organizing, autonomous units. These units may be part of
one company, located globally or part of several companies, all
co-operating to address customers’ requirements (extended and
virtual enterprises).
Modeling
and simulation
These
networks of companies (or demand chains) need to rapidly adapt
to changing requirements, new technologies, merging of existing
technologies and increasing globalization.
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The
required shorter response times will not allow time for experimentation
and iteration with the physical products and processes.
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The
entire enterprise will be modeled and simulated prior to actual
operation allowing alternatives to be quickly developed and
evaluated.
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To
be effective the simulation systems should use the logic and
design of the physical processes and thus form the core of
the production process systems. This requires new forms of
modeling systems, simulation systems, communication and information
exchange systems.
Digital
Factory
NGMS
Phase I resulted
in a vision of the Next Generation Manufacturing Enterprise (NGME)
and in significant modeling and simulation developments based
on the concepts of autonomous & distributed manufacturing
systems, biological manufacturing systems, fractal company and
agile manufacturing. At the conclusion of Phase I, it was realized
that the results actually defined the scope of the “Digital
Factory”. Typical Digital Factory concepts include:
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Within
the Digital Factory production simulations and the simultaneous
design of both product and production processes can be employed
to reveal potential errors and/or conflicts at an early facility
design stage.
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Utilizing
the concept of the Digital Factory, the factories of an NGME
can be truly designed and simulated within a virtual computer
network.
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Within
this Digital Factory simulation, the factory performance can
be simulated before cutting any metal or turning any earth
for the factory which, in turn, could result in timesaving
of up to 30 percent in the factory start-up and operation.
The
Digital Factory concept will be addressed in all aspects of the
NGMS-IMS project Phase II research and development activities
the project partners plan to engage. The Phase II NGMS-IMS project
partners will come from Europe, Japan and the United States and,
in most cases, they were involved in the NGMS-IMS project Phase
I efforts.
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