Achieving e-Manufacturing: multihead control and web technology for the implementation of a manufacturing execution system

Intelligent Manufacturing Systems requires advanced and efficient manufacturing technologies, management and procedures in order to achieve value creation in global markets. E-Manufacturing is the set of information technologies that allows companies to achieve on demand manufacturing through the integration of e-business applications. Cornerstone of this concept are Demand Flow Technology, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Digital Operational Method Sheets (OMS) which are vital to control shop floor operations where there is a need to balance manual and automated operations. Specially, Mexican companies face large diversity of products and multiple production lines, with high turnaround rotation of the workers. A low cost solution that integrates Demand Flow Technology, MES with Digital OMS is described, the system has been developed using LINUX servers, Multi-head control technology (multiple monitors to a single server) and a WEB based environment. This technological solution offers an affordable, stable, and high performance solution to transform the production into a more balanced system with shorter and faster cycles allowing a company to achieve e-Manufacturing. Received: February 2005/Accepted: January 2006