Event-driven multi-agent ubiquitous manufacturing execution platform for shop floor work-in-progress management

It has been reported that radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is applied to manufacturing shop floors for capturing and collecting real-time field data. Real-time information visibility and traceability allows decision makers to make better-informed shop floor decisions. It has been a great challenge to process a huge amount of RFID data into useful information for managerial uses. This paper presents an event-driven shop floor work-in-progress (WIP) management platform for creating a ubiquitous manufacturing (UM) environment. The platform aims to monitor and control dynamic production and material handling through RFID-enabled traceability and visibility of shop floor manufacturing processes. The platform provides facilities to process shop floor real-time RFID events and to aggregate actionable and meaningful operational information to support decision-making activities. An information processing mechanism based on a critical event model is proposed to organise real-time field data in various abstract levels for enterprise decisions. A case study at an air conditioner manufacturing company is used to demonstrate how the proposed platform can benefit its shop floor WIP management by showing how production and logistic operators and their supervisors accomplish their tasks.     

A framework for ICT-enabled real-time production planning and control

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for real-time production planning and control(PPC).Firstly,we discuss the most prominently applied contemporary information and communication technologies for PPC.Enterprise resource planning(ERP) systems that integrate the value chain in an enterprise,manufacturing execution systems that manage and control the production on shopfloor,and advanced planning and scheduling(APS)systems that develop solutions for complex planning problems are the planning and control systems that have been analyzed.We emphasize the application of radio frequency identification as the most advanced and promising emerging real-time data capture technology that is currently available to manufacturers.Having analyzed the features and shortcomings of the individual systems perse,and by considering the advantages that may be realized through effective integration of these otherwise discrete systems,we propose a framework for real-time PPC.     

Investigation of flow mechanisms in semiconductor wafer fabrication

The semiconductor wafer fabrication manufacturing environment is one of the most difficult in which to plan and control. Long and re-entrant routings and high yield loss on new products are two characteristics that impact system performance. This research provides an exploratory investigation of two simplified flow control mechanisms to determine if they might offer promise for further research in this complex environment. Most scheduling and control systems are data intensive and require real-time feedback. Our research explores the use of simple, limited data, flow control mechanisms. The results indicate that these newer planning and control mechanisms, which offer a systems perspective, perform well when compared with a real time, data-intensive, flow control mechanism.     

How good are my data?: Information quality assessment methodology.

Quality assurance techniques used in software development and hardware maintenance/reliability help ensure that data in a computerized information management system are maintained well. However, information workers may not know the quality of data resident in their information systems. Knowledge of the quality of information and data in an enterprise provides managers with important facts for managing and improving the processes that impact information quality. This paper presents quality assessment methodology to assist information workers in planning and implementing an effective assessment of their information data and quality. The areas covered include: identifying appropriate information quality indicators; developing assessment procedures; conducting information quality assessments; reporting information assessment results; tracking improvements in information quality.     

基于精益供应链的制造执行系统MES的研究

制造执行系统MES是以条形码技术、RFID等技术为核心的信息化综合解决方案,是构建与实施精益供应链管理的重要环节,可大大提高企业生产效率,实现企业供应链的赢利能力。基于精益供应链的MES系统包含从原材料采购到成品入库的生产过程进行实时数据采集、控制和监控的全过程,实现对生产控制、产品追踪追溯、实时数据传输与处理等功能。MES系统的开发采用模块化设计技术,包括系统架构设计、功能组件开发、信息采集等关键技术。     

A self-sustaining ultrahigh-frequency nanoelectromechanical oscillator

Sensors based on nanoelectromechanical systems vibrating at high and ultrahigh frequencies are capable of levels of performance that surpass those of larger sensors. Nanoelectromechanical devices have achieved unprecedented sensitivity in the detection of displacement, mass, force and charge. To date, these milestones have been achieved with passive devices that require external periodic or impulsive stimuli to excite them into resonance. Here, we demonstrate an autonomous and self-sustaining nanoelectromechanical oscillator that generates continuous ultrahigh-frequency signals when powered by a steady d.c. source. The frequency-determining element in the oscillator is a 428 MHz nanoelectromechanical resonator that is embedded within a tunable electrical feedback network to generate active and stable self-oscillation. Our prototype nanoelectromechanical oscillator exhibits excellent frequency stability, linewidth narrowing and low phase noise performance. Such ultrahigh-frequency oscillators provide a comparatively simple means for implementing a wide variety of practical sensing applications. They also offer intriguing opportunities for nanomechanical frequency control, timing and synchronization.     

Selection of management accounting systems in Just-In-Time and Theory of Constraints-based manufacturing

In today's competitive business environments, a firm's long-term survival rests heavily on its ability to sustain manufacturing superiority over its competitors. To provide the firm with detailed guidelines for sustaining manufacturing superiority, this paper examines the impact of different management accounting systems, manufacturing control systems and time horizon on manufacturing performance in an enterprise resource planning integrated environment. These management accounting systems include traditional costing, activity-based costing and throughput accounting. The manufacturing control systems include Just-In-Time- and Theory of Constraints-based manufacturing. Through a series of simulation experiments, it was found that activity-based costing provided higher short- and long-term profit, better customer service and lower work-in-process inventory than traditional costing and throughput accounting in situations where firms have high overhead costs and relatively low labour and material costs, while carrying ending inventories because of demand uncertainty. Traditional costing also outperformed throughput accounting by exploiting the real-time information sharing capabilities of an enterprise resource planning system. Just-In-Time manufacturing outperformed Theory of Constraints with respect to short- and long-term profitability, customer service, and work-in-process inventory because of differences in buffer inventory policies and sequencing rules. However, time horizon and its interaction with management accounting systems had no impact on the manufacturing performance. In addition, the results suggest that a management accounting system that depicts the manufacturing process tended to provide more accurate product cost information and resulted in a better system performance than the others.     

Collaboration of large equipment complete service under cloud manufacturing mode

This paper focuses on the need of the large equipment manufacturing industry to adapt collaborative operation to transform the industry to cloud manufacturing services and to solve the new problem of federal resources coordination in complete service operation. We systematically study federal resources cooperation under cloud manufacturing mode to complete a large complex project. The primary research contents are divided into four points. First, a system structure of cloud manufacturing service mode is presented. Second, a synergy logic framework from the global system perspective is designed based on generalised partial global planning. Third, a multi-level system coordination mechanism is established by integrating various methods, including the bidding game mechanism for enterprise external resources, the planning control mechanisms for enterprise internal resource and the global collaborative optimisation mechanism for enterprise global federal resources. Finally, a cloud manufacturing service platform for a typical enterprise is developed by combining theory with practice. The results can realise collaborative management in resource selection and configuration, service process planning control and service information feedback in cloud manufacturing service, as well as achieve overall synergy effect for the system.     

CONCORD: A Control Framework for Distributed Real-Time Systems

Novel network technology combined with advances in hardware development have permitted the enabling of distributed real-time systems and have shortened the time-to-market period. Distributed frameworks, also known as middleware, are often used to integrate enterprise systems, shorten the development time, and reduce complexity. However, to deploy standard middleware in robotics and control applications, we have to deal with the challenge of producing predictable outputs. Most real-time applications in these areas are developed in ad hoc manner, and as such, it is hard to migrate them to new platforms. To overcome this issue while minimizing development effort and increasing reusability for distributed real-time systems, we propose a control framework for distributed real-time systems based on standard middleware specifications. The control framework is composed of asynchronously running task modules, which can be located on either the local or the remote machines. The task modules are connected by an event channel, which uses the publish/subscribe communication method. We also have developed an adaptive event channel in order to meet real-time system requirements and to produce predictable outputs. Detailed development of the control framework along with the adaptive event channel are assessed through a set of experimental results.     

RFID-assisted assembly guidance system in an augmented reality environment

RFID technology provides an invisible ‘visibility’ to the end user for tracking and monitoring any objects that have been tagged. Research on the application of RFID in assembly lines for overall production monitoring and control has been reported recently. This paper presents a novel research on implementing the RFID technology in the application of assembly guidance in an augmented reality environment. Aiming at providing just-in-time information rendering and intuitive information navigation, methodologies of applying RFID, infrared-enhanced computer vision, and inertial sensor is discussed in this paper. A prototype system is established, and two case studies are presented to validate the feasibility of the proposed system.     

The industrial management of SMEs in the era of Industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 provides new paradigms for the industrial management of SMEs. Supported by a growing number of new technologies, this concept appears more flexible and less expensive than traditional enterprise information systems such as ERP and MES. However, SMEs find themselves ill-equipped to face these new possibilities regarding their production planning and control functions. This paper presents a literature review of existing applied research covering different Industry 4.0 issues with regard to SMEs. Papers are classified according to a new framework which allows identification of the targeted performance objectives, the required managerial capacities and the selected group of technologies for each selected case. Our results show that SMEs do not exploit all the resources for implementing Industry 4.0 and often limit themselves to the adoption of Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things. Likewise, SMEs seem to have adopted Industry 4.0 concepts only for monitoring industrial processes and there is still absence of real applications in the field of production planning. Finally, our literature review shows that reported Industry 4.0 projects in SMEs remained cost-driven initiatives and there in still no evidence of real business model transformation at this time.     

RFID-enabled product-service system for automotive part and accessory manufacturing alliances

Automotive part and accessory manufacturers (APAMs) at the lower tiers of automotive vertical supply chains have been responding to major initiatives taken by leading vehicle assemblers in adopting RFID (radio frequency identification) and ubiquitous computing technologies to alleviate their manufacturing systems. RFID-enabled real-time traceability and visibility facilitate and enhance the implementation of advanced strategies such as just-in-time (JIT) lean/responsive manufacturing and mass customisation (MC). This paper reports on findings gained from a series of industrial field and pilot studies conducted within collaborating companies. Being typically small and medium sized, APAMs are faced with business and technical challenges that are summarised by the so-called ‘three high problems’, namely high cost, high risk and high level of technical skills. This research takes a more cost-effective pragmatic approach to overcome the ‘three high problems’ by sharing out the problems among APAMs while taking a longer-term, expensive and lengthy, approach to absolutely reduce the problems. The sharing approach requires the establishment of an innovative service-oriented framework, abbreviated AUTOPS, based on the Product Service Systems (PSS) business model. RFID hardware devices are innovated into gateways as hardcore products to formulate a PSS. RFID-enabled real-time services are deployed at a common platform across members of an APAMs alliance. AUTOPS facilities are shared by APAM alliance members to reduce the start-up investment costs, reduce the level of required specialist skills, speed up installation processes and streamline maintenance services, and improve the reliability of the RFID gateway services.     

Intelligent and integrated RFID (Ⅱ-RFID) system for improving traceability in manufacturing

In the wake of globalization,many modern manufacturing companies in Norway have come under intense pressure caused by increased competition,stricter government regulation,and customer demand for higher value at low cost in a short time.Manufacturing companies need traceability,which means a real-time view into thenproduction processes and operations.Radio frequency identification(RFID) technology enables manufacturing companies to gain instant traceability and visibility because it handles manufactured goods,materials and processes transparently.RFID has become an important driver in manufacturing and supply chain activities.However,there is still a challenge in effectively deploying RFID in manufacturing.This paper describes the importance for Norwegian manufacturing companies to implement RFID technology,and shows how the intelligent and integrated RFID(n-RFID) system,which has been developed in the Knowledge Discovery Laboratory of Norwegian University of Science and Technology,provides instant traceability and visibility into manufacturing processes.It supports the Norwegian manufacturing industries survive and thrive in global competition.The future research work will focus on the field of RFID data mining to support decision-making process in manufacturing.     

Linear and Integer Programming

Coordinate sensing systems have been widely used in various manufacturing processes to monitor product quality and automatically identify process faults. They play a crucial role in manufacturing quality improvement. For complex manufacturing processes, especially processes with multiple stages, typically not all process faults can be uniquely identified by a feasible sensing system. For these complex processes, a diagnosability study is an important issue for the evaluation and usage of coordinate sensing systems. This article conducts a diagnosability study of coordinate sensing systems based on matroid theory. The use of matroid theory improves understanding of existing results on diagnosability. In addition, new results and more efficient algorithms related to diagnosability study are investigated based on matroid theory. The developed theory and algorithms, which can be applied in a broad class of diagnosis problems, are demonstrated using a panel assembly process.     

Transition to a JIT production system through ERP implementation: a case from the automotive industry

ERP systems provide important benefits to institutions, such as improved processes, improved data, supplier–customer integration, better planning and control, as well as real-time insight and just-in-time (JIT) management that can put a business organisation in front of the competition. In this study, the change and transformation experienced by establishing an ERP system are explained for an automotive supplier that was not using an integrated ERP system for a real-world problem. The pre-implementation situation, the problems of the existing system, the necessary reasons for such an application, the determined deficiencies of the installed system and the post-implementation situation are explained in detail. Thanks to the real-time information and integrated data generated by the reports, along with a more sophisticated business understanding, the risk to employees was lowered. As a result of a changeover to real-time Materials Requirement Planning, the decrease in inventory levels, stabilisation in delivery time and efficiency of control over the production processes were increased in addition to real-time tracking and reporting advantages. As a result of this work, the production processes were transformed into JIT. The inventory level was reduced to zero and a formerly used warehouse was no longer required.     

Bayesian Approach to Inventory Control of New Parts

The specific real world problem of concern is the inventory control of repair parts for new weapon systems. The initial forecast of demand is based on engineering estimates. This forecast is updated as demand experience accrues. An algorithm implementing a dynamic programming formulation is developed and used as a research tool to obtain insights into how the opportunity to improve the demand forecast impacts the optimum inventory control parameters.     

Towards a standardised information exchange within finished vehicle logistics based on RFID and EPCIS

Finished vehicle logistics is facing different challenges. In order to cope with these challenges this article presents a case study, analysing a concept to improve finished vehicle logistics using radio frequency identification (RFID)-based and electronic product code information services (EPCIS). Within this case study, vehicles were identified automatically by RFID. For sharing, the information generated by RFID the EPCIS-based InfoBroker was developed according to the needs of the automotive industry. By having data available through the InfoBroker, decision support systems (DSS) can make planning and control of finished vehicle logistics decisions more efficiently. The case study was executed within two finished vehicle logistics cases. Based on this article practitioners can estimate the potentials of RFID and EPCIS for finished vehicle logistics. Based on the data made accessible by the presented concept practitioners and researches can develop innovative DSS to improve finished vehicle logistics     

Supervisory control and data acquisition for virtual enterprise

The new manufacturing paradigms, such as agile manufacture and lean production, are leading industrial countries towards the new generation of concurrent enterprises involving virtual enterprise architecture and concurrent engineering extended methodology. Continuing adaptation to the market can only be achieved efficiently if the planning and control processes are both optimized horizontally (Automatic Control Systems) and vertically (Management Control Systems). The desired improvement in performance and the realization of global enterprise objectives require a tight integration of the units of the enterprise. The close monitoring of the operational performance of various plants, manufacturing shop-floors/cells/machines, as well as their associated instrumentation and control is of increasing strategic importance. Failures can lead to increased costs and reduced product quality, consistency and production, and to plant shutdowns and increased environmental impact. There is a real need for advanced monitoring technologies to be applied, and their potential demonstrated, on complex industrial plants. The planning and scheduling of manufacturing systems integrated into virtual enterprise architectures requires the implementation of new General Master Production Planning and Scheduling techniques and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) functions. This paper discusses some key issues on the SCADA-oriented open system for virtual enterprise architecture.     

Viewpoint: Homeostasis as Inspiration—Toward Interactive Materials

Homeostatic systems combine an ability to maintain integrity over time with an incredible capacity for interactive behavior. Fundamental to such systems are building blocks of “mini-homeostasis”: feedback loops in which one component responds to a stimulus and another opposes the response, pushing the module to restore its original configuration. Particularly when they cross time and length scales, perturbation of these loops by external changes can generate diverse and complex phenomena. Here, it is proposed that by recognizing and implementing mini-homeostatic modules—often composed of very different physical and chemical processes—into synthetic materials, numerous interactive behaviors can be obtained, opening avenues for designing multifunctional materials. How a variety of controlled, nontrivial material responses can be evoked from even simple versions of such synthetic feedback modules is illustrated. Moreover, random events causing seemingly random responses give insights into how one can further explore, understand and control the full interaction space. Ultimately, material fabrication and exploration of interactivity become inseparable in the rational design of such materials. Homeostasis provides a lens through which one can learn how to combine and perturb coupled processes across time and length scales to conjure up exciting behaviors for new materials that are both robust and interactive.     

基于智能对象的SMT车间制造执行系统研究

为了实现电子产品制造过程中对SMT车间的实时、精细化管控,本文提出了一种基于智能对象的SMT车间制造执行系统。通过引入RFID技术与智能对象,给出了基于智能对象的SMT行业制造执行系统框架。在介绍RFID在车间的系统化部署的基础上,详细分析了SMT车间数据采集模式,并描述了贴装过程物料防错流程。最后以广州某电子企业为例,说明了所构建系统的可行性和有效性。