Development of a resource agent for an e-manufacturing system

Abstract

Due to globalisation and distributed manufacturing systems the development and manufacture of products is no longer an isolated activity undertaken by either one discipline or a single organization but has become a global process. Using e-manufacturing companies can now outsource to manufacturers outside their geographical area and make them dependent on the production capabilities and responsiveness of the suppliers. Hence there is need for the suppliers to provide reliable information on the state of the orders being processed. E-manufacturing promises companies to exchange the required information with their suppliers by increased visibility to the shop floor and providing a platform for information interchange. The paper discusses the development of an e-manufacturing resource agent to enable manufactures to predict the probability of their outsourced machinery being available and the probability to complete an order without having a breakdown. The Maintenance Free Operation Period (MFOP) method is used to develop the agent. This means that the manufacturer will be expected to have a guarantee that no unscheduled maintenance activities will occur during each defined period of operation with the predefined level of confidence