Reconfiqurable Manufacturing Systems

This Workpackage would develop a reconfigurable, flexible computer automated Digital Factory manufacturing system, which can scale by modular construction to high and low volumes of production. The Tasks within the Workpackage will develop the modules of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems required to operate a manufacturing enterprise in a way that they are:

• Easy human interpretation of system organization and behavior

• Customization and specialization of sub-system behavior

• Easy system reconfiguration and reuse of sub-system modules

• Efficient solutions to decision problems encountered in:

• System planning, design and reconfiguration

• Process and production planning

• System operation

• Monitoring and troubleshooting

Task 6.1 Scaleable Flexible Manufacturing

This Task will provide a tool that will allow both PCB designers and manufacturing engineers to simulate the possible outcome of the manufacturing process of a printed wiring assembly within a Digital Factory. The proposed work is to build a Digital Factory simulator of the placement process that will accept the details of PCB design from Rockwell, use a set of DFM rules about allowable placement, and machine program details to produce a Digital Factory simulation of the component placement process. 

Rockwell has low volume high variety product mix. Also, design changes of PCBs occur very frequently. Given the small batch sizes and large proportion of setup times, tools that help reduce machine down time are crucial to the efficiency of the manufacturing line. The proposed development of the Digital Factory simulator will help engineers identify design flaws that can be corrected in a simulated environment outside the production line, thus minimizing the overall downtime.

The strategy for this Task is to develop a graphical Digital Factory simulator for a high-speed component placement machine. Once proved, the model will be extended to other PCB operations and extended to multi-machine Digital Factory simulations. During the final stages of this Task, greater emphasis will be given to real-time control of manufacturing cells. This is a move away from simulation to the implementation of shop floor controls utilizing the Digital Factory results from the facility simulation.

Task 6.2 Development and Verification of Control Executives for Manufacturing Cells

A number of factors are driving corporations towards short product life cycles, lower total production volumes and higher-levels of product mixes (because of customization), i.e., toward Scaleable Flexible Manufacturing (SFM) systems. Thus, there is a crucial need to develops tools and methodologies that assist in the reduction of time and effort spent in planning, specification, designing, validation and deploying manufacturing facilities (typically production cells) for such quickly changing product models. Today, such facilities are developed in a number of sequential steps, with strong decoupling of the mechanical and control/co-ordination issues. This fails to leverage the potential savings possible from the increased level of standardization available in industrial automation, the use of object technologies that allow for better encapsulation and integration of capabilities of sub-systems. Thus, in general, the potential for saving of time, expenditure and effort by component reuse and system (re) configuration is lost.

 This Task will seek to develop, demonstrate and validate a methodology and engineering process for SFM software within a Digital Factory environment that will include the following:

• Successive refinement/decomposition (hierarchically) of a process plan to a control "plan".

• Development of a unified representation of plans/programs at the different levels of decomposition mentioned above.

• Development of software-based plan/program validation techniques.

• Development of an architectural framework of reusable automation object classes consisting of both, the mechanical and electrical/control properties of automation devices such as locators, clamps, servo-controlled positioners etc. along with a core set of supporting services.

• Validation of the framework, including its efficacy, through development and demonstration of a prototype integrated planning, specification, configuration, validation/verification/simulation and control software environment for a specific domain of applications, e.g., robotic welding cells.

Task 6.3 Autonomous Distributed Manufacturing and Resource Planning (ADMRP)

For next generation manufacturing planning, the following will be required:

• Plans of both manufacturing facilities and their operations need to be rapidly and flexibly modified, according to the diversity of customer requirement, shortening of production life cycle and system disturbance. 

• To establish an information system architecture which enables flexible and rapid change of the system keeping the functionality and consistency of the system in correspondence with the change of manufacturing manner, goal etc.

• Total planning of manufacturing and its resources for a whole factory to achieve shorter manufacturing lead-time and more cost reduction in the age of global mega-competition.

An autonomous distributed manufacturing and resource planning system will be developed in which each planning function of process sequence, facilities layout, worker distribution and production sequence is respectively defined as an autonomous agent and each agent iteratively cooperates with other agents to achieve optimum planning corresponding to system changes.  An agent-based and plug-in oriented information system architecture will also be developed to realize flexibility and agility of the system.

 The enhancement of the ADMRP technology will be developed within the concepts of ADMS and BMS that were researched under NGMS-IMS project Phase I activities.  The concept of the Digital Factory will play a major role in developing the actual research activities of this Task.

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