André Thomas

The performance of product-driven manufacturing control: An emulation-based benchmarking study

Product-driven control may enable manufacturing companies to meet business demands more quickly and effectively. But a key point in making this concept acceptable by industry is to provide benchmarking environments in order to compare and analyze their efficiency on emulated large-scale industry-led case studies with regard to current technologies and approaches. In this paper, a benchmarking protocol is defined, in order to provide R&D practitioners with benchmarking services in a product-driven implementation project. A component-based generic architecture is proposed to support this protocol, enabling to model and compare various control architectures. This benchmarking protocol is applied to an automotive-industry case study in order to evaluate the impact of making the products interact with the local decision centers. Finally the experiments show that product-driven control can perform as good as traditional centralized control, and that its robustness depends mainly of the local decision-making processes.

Design and validation of a product-driven control system based on a six sigma methodology and discrete event simulation

Recent trends in industry towards autonomous and just-in-time production systems, and the latest developments in auto-ID technologies, have created new opportunities for enhancing reactivity and agility on the shop floor. To take advantage of these opportunities, a Product-driven System (PDS) concept can be seen as an innovative control concept that advocates that a product can be an active actor throughout its lifecycle by associating the material flow with the product information. We propose a methodological approach that contributes to the design and validation of such a system. More specifically, this work focuses on an infrastructure that satisfies PDS control requirements. The feasibility of our proposed approach was evaluated by the development of an industrial case at the Trane Company using six sigma methodology and discrete event simulation.

Embedding data on

Nowadays, intelligent products carrying information or having decision-making abilities are becoming widespread. The idea of using intelligent products to ensure an information continuum all along the product life cycle is more and more shared today. However, it is not that easy to identify the information that must be linked to the product. As a result, this paper proposes an information dissemination process for selecting information sensitive to the context of use of the product. This information is then stored on the products themselves using a new type of augmented material, referred to as “communicating material”.

Problem definition methodology for the “Communicating Material” paradigm

Abstract Today, more and more new technologies of information and wireless communication are useful for social, economic and industrial life. Auto-ID technologies such as RFID are a good example of that. The actual limits of these new systems are relative to their granularity, since items are the smallest parts of an ubiquitous system (Internet of things). In this paper we propose a “communicating material” new paradigm. Working on the credibility of this concept since some years, we highlight here its main technological and research perspectives.

Viable System Model Approach for Holonic Product Driven Manufacturing Systems

The chapter presents a generic framework for a Product Driven Control Systems (PDCS) dealing with production planning and control. The framework is based on Viable System Model (VSM) which is introduced for intelligent manufacturing systems. Based on suitable properties as autonomy, self-organization and adaptability, VSM allows modelling and considering these properties for PDCS. An application for a Manufacturing Planning and Control System (MPCS) is proposed. Different points of view are also presented based on this application which are shown and explained in the sense of VSM principles. Finally, a discussion is presented dealing with the main issues of the proposed approach.

Future Industrial Systems: Best Practices of the Intelligent Manufacturing and Services Systems (IMS2) French Research Group

Development of future industry has become an active research area in the recent years. A structured national workgroup, called IMS2, has emerged in France over the last decade. The aim of this paper is, regarding four highlighted general research topics (namely agility, new technologies, sustainability, and industrial dissemination), to synthetize the general research works on intelligent manufacturing and to demonstrate the principal contributions developed within the framework of this national workgroup. After a critical evaluation of the proposed approaches toward alternative solutions, this paper suggests a 2030 roadmap for the workgroup.

A reactive decision-making approach to reduce instability in a master production schedule

One of the primary factors that impact the master production scheduling performance is demand fluctuation, which leads to frequently updated decisions, thereby causing instability. Consequently, global cost deteriorates, and productivity decreases. A reactive approach based on parametric mixed-integer programming (MIP) is proposed that aims to provide a set of plans such that a compromise between production cost and production stability is ensured. Several stability measures and their corresponding MIP model are proposed. An experimental study is performed to highlight the effectiveness of the reactive approach with regard to the proposed performance measures. It is observed that an improvement in stability does not mean a significant increase in the total production cost. Furthermore, the procedure yields a set of plans that in practice would enable flexible management of production.

Method for embedding context-sensitive information on “communicating textiles” via fuzzy AHP

The amount of data output in our environment is increasing each day, and the development of new technologies constantly redefines how we interact with information. In the context of PLM Product Lifecycle Management, it is not uncommon to use intelligent products to ensure an information continuum all along the product life cycle e.g. for traceability purposes. However, it is not that easy to identify what information should be stored on the product. To answer this question, this paper proposes a data dissemination process to select context-sensitive information from the database, that must be stored/replicated on the product especially if the product is made of “communicating material”. Our approach uses the fuzzy AHP theory for aggregating points of view from different actors. The data dissemination process is then applied on a case study to embed context-sensitive information on a “communicating textile”.

Towards data exchange interoperability in building lifecycle management

Building Information Management systems have started to leverage new kinds of digital information infrastructures that integrate activities related to design, budgeting, scheduling, analysis, material management, and human resources. Companies implementing such systems have no other option today than exchanging information among themselves in a proper and efficient way. Industry foundation classes (IFCs) provide useful information structures for such a data sharing. However they do not specify how to capture, exchange and synchronize the information between distinct entities (i.e. information systems like sensors, servers, smart products...) throughout the building lifecycle. Accordingly, this paper investigates existing messaging protocols in order to identify which one is the most appropriate for supporting building lifecycle management; i.e a flexible protocol that provides sufficiently generic communication interfaces. A platform set up on a university campus based on the selected messaging protocol is then presented. Within this context, the research agenda that should be pursued to develop new techniques and algorithms for optimizing the building energy management is announced.

Fuzzy Decision-Making Method for Product Holons Encountered Emergency Breakdown in Product-Driven System: An Industrial Case

In this paper a fuzzy decision-making method is proposed to make local decisions in case of breakdown occurring in a context of product-driven systems. To cope with breakdown uncertainty, three parameters, α, β and γ are created to evaluate the impact of it. Further, a fuzzy rule based on a membership function is designed to switch between centralized and distributed decisions concerning the re-arranging of the remaining parts. Simulation results show that appropriate decisions could be made by the proposed fuzzy decision-making method with certain suitable parameters. This method was applied on an existing industrial case; it can be easily extended to make decision for breakdown events in other contexts.