Design principles for open and reusable shop-floor control software

Abstract

Integrating a heterogeneous manufacturing environment means using information technology to provide appropriate access to accurate and timely information. While individual systems provide valuable solutions to particular manufacturing or transport problems, quick and easy information-sharing throughout the shop-floor has become almost impossible. Yet, information-sharing is increasingly critical for the success of the company and its manufacturing goals. Whether data comes from a device or an application in the manufacturing environment, the critical success factor in shop-floor integration is the ability to turn data into useful information, to distribute it, and to share it regardless of application, device, hardware, operating system, and network used. Manufacturing environments are changing constantly and the technology surrounding and supporting them is often changing faster. Solving manufacturing problems by acquiring a variety of incompatible hardware and software from multiple vendors has created a complex application and device integration problem. This paper describes an approach that makes the task of application integration easier. The concept focuses on achieving application independence and was verified in an assembly cell at a truck component factory.