A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO COMPUTER INTEGRATED MANUFACTURING ARCHITECTURE AND SYSTEMS DESIGN

This work addresses the problem of finding an improved solution to Computer Integrated Manufacturing (ClM) Architecture and Systems Design. The current approaches are shown to be difficult to understand and use, over complex. In spite of their complexity of approach they lack comprehensiveness and omit many factors and dimensions considered essential for success in today's competitive and often global market place. A new approach to ClM Architecture and Systems Design is presented which offers a simpler, more flexible and more robust format for defining a particular ClM System within a general architectural framework. At the same time this new approach is designed to offer a comprehensive and holistic solution. The research work involved the investigation of current approaches and research and development initiatives focusing particularly on the CIM-OSA and GRAI Integrated methodologies in the field of ClM Architecture. The strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches are examined. Developments in other related fields including manufacturing systems, manufacturing management, information technology and systems generally have been investigated regarding their relevance and possible contribution to an improved solution. The author has built on his practical experience in creating, designing and managing the implementation of a global CIM system. The authors work on several publicly funded collaborative research and development projects relevant to the problem area is described. These include CIM-OSA, IMOCIM and TIQS projects. In the latter two projects the author was instrumental in developing the methodological approach based on a systems approach to business processes in connection with the design of quality and manufacturing systems. Both of these projects have contributed to this work. The author has also participated in the global IMS programme as a rapporteur for the European Commission and this helped to provide a global perspective on the problems of manufacturing companies as they attempt to compete in a world wide market place. The results of this work provide the basis for a radically improved approach to ClM Architecture and Systems Design based on the holistic view of an enterprise. The approach developed supports the business process view of an enterprise; addresses the people and organisational aspects; leads to ClM solutions focused on meeting enterprise goals; and is able to deal with a significantly increased scope and complexity compared with existing methods yet is easily understood and more simple to simple to apply than current approaches

Towards the essence of specifying sociotechnical digital twins

Digital Twins are now mainstream technology in the engineering domain. Capabilities and underpinning concepts are well understood and augmented by proven theories from the physical sciences. Nonetheless the design of digital twins in engineering still remains essential a craft. As digital twin technology merges with more traditional computational modelling approaches such as that found in simulation, new application domains are emerging and public policy experts see significant potential in DT for understanding their complex system areas. Such domains have a significant sociotechnical component and as such a new type of digital twin is required, together with a means of specifying such a digital twin. This paper proposes a specification language/method for this purpose. Requirements elicitation for this language utilises a tabletop paper template that serves as a boundary object between domain experts and technical experts. The language is conformant with accepted practice in simulation methods and its semantics provides a route to implementation of a digital twin. We argue that the language is a contribution to a breadcrumb trail for future work in this emerging application area for digital twins

How Facets of Work Illuminate Sociotechnical Challenges of Industry 5.0

This conceptual contribution explains how the idea of “facets of work” can refocus traditional sociotechnical concerns to increase their relevance in increasingly automated and digitalized workplaces far removed from situations studied by early sociotechnical researchers. A background section summarizes how the sociotechnical approach seems pervasive but possibly outdated in some ways. It explains how the idea of “facets of work” emerged from attempting to bring richer, more evocative ide-as to systems analysis and design. Focusing on facets of work during initial discussions of requirements could provide guidance without jumping prematurely to precision and notation needed for producing technical artifacts. Tables with one row for each of 18 facets or one row for the first 9 (reflect-ing length restrictions) illustrates that the 18 facets 1) point to areas where the coexistence of people and robots in workplaces poses challenging sociotechnical issues, 2) apply to both sociotechnical and totally automated systems, 3) are associated with specific sets of concepts, 4) bring evaluation criteria and design trade-offs, 5) have useful sub-facets, and 6) imply open-ended questions for starting discussions. The conclusion summarizes this paper’s contribution to understanding challenges of Industry 5.0 and discusses next steps in developing and applying its ideas

Designing Resilient Creative Communities Through Biomimetic Service Design

Creative communities are grassroots, bottom-up initiatives of people who through their diffuse design capacity propose new, desirable service futures that address the problems of everyday life. These creative communities exist within a transition from modernity towards sustainment, their adversarial character embodies alternative values such as conviviality, solidarity, openness and shift the focus from growth to flourishing. The sociotechnical system that is a creative community creating social innovation faces constant threats due to the collapse of traditional support structures and their disruptive, adversarial character and so, identifying strategies to increase its resilience is necessary. We turn to nature for inspiration and mentoring. Biomimisis is a framework that designs solutions inspired by biological systems. We argue that permaculture, provides an interesting direction for the development and research in the context of social innovation

Using Work System Theory to Achieve Greater Business Value from ERP by Exploring Alternative Design Spaces

This paper explains how various aspects of work system theory (WST) can be applied to achieve greater business value from ERP by assuming that the underlying design spaces encompass much more than the features, configuration, and limitations of ERP software. It uses WST concepts to identify directions for achieving business value that might not be considered thoroughly in ERP implementations that focus primarily on converting from legacy software to ERP software. This paper starts by summarizing basic premises concerning the relationship between work systems and ERP. Focusing on the context of ERP usage, it explains the elements of the two central frameworks in WST, the work system framework and work system life cycle model. Instead of viewing the context as ERP usage or ERP projects, viewing the context as ERP-enabled work system improvement focuses attention on a number of paths toward greater business value that may not be used effectively in current practice. The paper discusses five relevant design spaces that are mentioned rarely, if at all, in current practice. Part of the paper\u27s contribution is in making those ideas more explicit through framing the discussion around aspects of WST. Another part of its contribution is in providing a new way to discuss topics such as workarounds, add-ins, and exceptions that are sometimes controversial issues when ERP is used

Designing Resilient Creative Communities Through Biomimetic Service Design

Creative communities are grassroots, bottom-up initiatives of people who through their diffuse design capacity propose new, desirable service futures that address the problems of everyday life. These creative communities exist within a transition from modernity towards sustainment, their adversarial character embodies alternative values such as conviviality, solidarity, openness and shift the focus from growth to flourishing. The sociotechnical system that is a creative community creating social innovation faces constant threats due to the collapse of traditional support structures and their disruptive, adversarial character and so, identifying strategies to increase its resilience is necessary. We turn to nature for inspiration and mentoring. Biomimisis is a framework that designs solutions inspired by biological systems. We argue that permaculture, provides an interesting direction for the development and research in the context of social innovation

EXPLOITING KASPAROV'S LAW: ENHANCED INFORMATION SYSTEMS INTEGRATION IN DOD SIMULATION-BASED TRAINING ENVIRONMENTS

Despite recent advances in the representation of logistics considerations in DOD staff training and wargaming simulations, logistics information systems (IS) remain underrepresented. Unlike many command and control (C2) systems, which can be integrated with simulations through common protocols (e.g., OTH-Gold), many logistics ISs require manpower-intensive human-in-the-loop (HitL) processes for simulation-IS (sim-IS) integration. Where automated sim-IS integration has been achieved, it often does not simulate important sociotechnical system (STS) dynamics, such as information latency and human error, presenting decision-makers with an unrealistic representation of logistics C2 capabilities in context. This research seeks to overcome the limitations of conventional sim-IS interoperability approaches by developing and validating a new approach for sim-IS information exchange through robotic process automation (RPA). RPA software supports the automation of IS information exchange through ISs’ existing graphical user interfaces. This “outside-in” approach to IS integration mitigates the need for engineering changes in ISs (or simulations) for automated information exchange. In addition to validating the potential for an RPA-based approach to sim-IS integration, this research presents recommendations for a Distributed Simulation Engineering and Execution Process (DSEEP) overlay to guide the engineering and execution of sim-IS environments.Major, United States Marine CorpsApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Tricks and trucks: Ten years of organizational renewal at DAF?

Organizational Change;Lean Production;DAF;production