A framework for distributed manufacturing applications

The new organisational structures used in world wide manufacturing systems require the development of distributed applications, which present solutions to their requirements. The work research in the distributed manufacturing control leads to emergent paradigms, such as Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS) and Bionic Manufacturing Systems (BMS), which translates the concepts from social organisations and biological systems to the manufacturing world. This paper present a Framework for the development of distributed manufacturing applications, based in an agent-based architecture, which implements some Holonic and Bionic Manufacturing Systems concepts

Restructuring via internationalization: The auto industry's direct investment projects in Eastern Central Europe

Internationalization based on direct foreign investment is proving to be a key economic factor for the transformation economies of Eastern Central Europe. The decisive influence factors in this process are primarily major investments by groups based on longer-term strategies with the new locations. The effects linked with this at factory and regional levels are discussed in the study using the example of the auto and components industry. The sector was chosen because it is one of those very strongly linked with such major projects. The Volkswagen group's two prominent investment projects, Škoda in the Czech Republic and Audi in Hungary, are used to illustrate two things. First, that there was very accelerated implementation of the operational expansion of competences, in terms of new products, modern production structures, international competitiveness, and quality standards achieved. Second, that this was able to be done because of the especially highly skilled workers in the area. As a consequence, the firms have since been able to achieve not just strong positions within their respective national economies, but also within the VW group. However, by contrast, impulses for local industry emanating from the major investments have remained very limited. The study attributes this development to a coincidence of various causes. These include, above all, structural change in the auto industry over the past few years, the VW group's specific modernization path, and weak governance on the part of the transformation countries' governments. The results arising from the extended perspective of globalization and transformation underlying the group's project approach clearly indicate that increased international competition has strengthened the Eastern Central European region's comparative constellation of advantages. This consists of high-skill structures at low-cost conditions. It is unclear how far further reaching industrial upgrading at factory and regional levels can still be achieved in the countries in the face of increased East-West locational competition linked with this. The authors interpret this as a question of implementing new transnational arrangements limiting the negative consequences for locations in the West as well. --

Distributed production planning and control agent based system

A model of an Agent based Production Planning and Control (PPC) system able to be dynamically adaptable to local and distributed utilization of production resources and materials is presented. The PPC system is based on the selection of resources to deal with one order of different quantities of one product each time. In this way it is build one scheduling solution for that particular order. The production resources are selected and scheduled using a multiagent system supported by an implementation of the Smith Contract Net, using Java Spaces technology. The multiagent system is based on three main agents: Client, Resource and Manager. These agents negotiate the final product, and the correspondent components, requested by the client. An order for each product (component) triggers a process of dynamic design of a production system to fulfill that particular order. This system exists till the end of the order

A reference model for information specification for metalworking SMEs

The work reported in this thesis offers a novel basis for the realisation of specifications for information requirements to meet the distinct operational requirements of metalworking SMEs. This has been achieved through the development of a reference SME enterprise model based on fundamental ideas of the holon and fractal factory concepts. The novel concept of a node holon is introduced, which allows the representation of the human dominated interactions in a company based on the fundamental concepts of the holon. This offers a competitive alternative to the methods for enterprise modelling and information specification which are based solely around business processes and procedural rules. A new representation for the organisation of the SME has been based on identifying the major zones of activity within the enterprise, which is seen to provide a more appropriate representation for companies whose basis for operation is informally structured. Two classes of zones have been identified, these are the business support zone and manufacturing zone. The relationship between a top down description of the enterprise as zones and the complementary bottoms up modelling of the enterprise based on concepts of the node holon are described in detail. A critical study of two candidate modelling architectures, namely CIN40SA and ARIS will show the applicability of the individual architectures for the task information specification. The constituents of the SMEE enterprise reference model is placed within the context of contemporary enterprise modelling practice by mapping against one of the architectures. This will demonstrate how the architectures can readily accommodate new modelling approaches whilst retaining their major advantages, thereby increasing their applicability and potential uptake. The reference SME enterprise model has been readily applied in the study of an SME, where a representation of the company has been achieved solely on the current organisation of its business support and manufacturing activities. The holonic aspects of the enterprise have also been successfully modelled. This process is supported by a CASE tool which has it constructs underpinned by the reference SME enterprise model

Common shared system model for evolvable assembly systems

A vital aspect of distributed control in an adaptable production system is coherence between each system resource. The Evolvable Assembly Systems project addresses this challenge using a common shared system model. This paper provides an overview of the project and the shared system model approach as implemented in a real world demonstration cell

Production and logistics performance of Czech and Slovak companies

This contribution deals with the issues of production and logistics performance of Czech and Slovak companies. The goal of the research was to analyze logistic processes, methods of industrial engineering, methods and evaluation of manufacturing, software tools utilized for measurement and management of performance, which are currently applied in manufacturing companies in the Czech and Slovak Republic. This analysis was done with the utilization of qualitative research conducted in 80 selected manufacturing companies in 2009. The results are compared in the continuity with the conclusions from previous researches on manufacturing and logistic factors of the competitiveness of Czech industrial manufacturers carried out during the period 2000-2001 in the framework of the research project of the Faculty of Economics and Management completed in 2004.GACRGrant Agency of the Czech Republic [402/09/1739]; [IGA/79/FaME/10/D UTB

an embedded database technology perspective in cyber physical production systems

Abstract The goal of the paper is the proposition of an enabling technology for the control and optimization of cyber-physical production systems, oriented to the lightweight implementation of performance metrics methodology in a network of distributed devices. The database-centric perspective, applied to distributed devices, supports the adoption of well-known key performance metrics for viable lightweight control policies and optimization of complex scenarios in the factory of the future. An experiment of the technique on a real case data set is presented and analyzed