Michiko Matsuda

Digital Eco-factory as an IT Support Tool for Sustainable Manufacturing

A sustainable discrete manufacturing using a digital eco-factory as an IT tool has been proposed. In this paper, details of a digital eco-factory with construction methods are discussed. A digital eco-factory is a virtual factory and IT support platform on which a production scenario is examined from various viewpoints. When a digital eco-factory is used, environmental impact of the planned production scenario is examined in addition to productivity and manufacturability. A digital eco-factory is constructed on a digital factory. A digital factory is constructed on the virtual production line. Multi agent technologies can be applied to modelling an actual shop floor and its components. All components are configured as software agents. These agents are called “machine agents.” Furthermore, manufactured products are also configured as software agents. These agents are called “product agents.” In the digital eco-factory, there are three panels which have a user interface from each different viewpoint. The three panels are a plant panel, product panel and an environmental index panel. By using a digital eco-factory, a production system designer can do pre-assessment of the configuration of the production line and production scenario, and a factory equipment vender can show performance of his equipment.

Verification of Scheduling Efficiency of an Autonomous Assembly System Using the Multi-Agent Manufacturing Simulator

This study is an examination of the effect of agent-based autonomous production scheduling, using the virtual factory on multi-agent simulation system. In the autonomous manufacturing system, a production plan is generated autonomously and dynamically, using communication and negotiation between agents that correspond to factory components. As infrastructure software for agent based manufacturing, the artisoc(c) is used as multi-agent simulator system. In this virtual factory, three types of agents are equipped. Users can operate a configuration such as input new jobs, adjusting a machine setting, etc, with monitoring conditions of agents. Additionally, this simulator has capability of input and output files such as assembly process schedules and logs of practical operations. As a result, by adjustment of the agent’s behavior with factory floor detail, the assembly schedule becomes more effective. The experiment was carried out to show that local negotiations contribute to global optimization when resources in the factory are effectively distributed and shared.Copyright

Software Interoperability Tools: Standardized Capability-Profiling Methodology ISO16100

The ISO 16100 series has been developed for Manufacturing software interoperability through capability profiling. Theses international standards are also applicable and usable for developing general software applications including enterprise applications. In this paper, ISO 16100 methodology and its usage in the trial implemented environment are introduced and discussed as software interoperability tools. The capability profile is created by filling an adequate template. The templates are prepared corresponding to activity classes which construct the application. In the development stage of new application software, the adequate software units for reuse can be found to match the requirement described in the required capability profile. The matching algorithm for capability profiles using an application domain dictionary is also provided when the profiles come from different activity class trees.

Digital Eco-Factory as an IT Platform for Green Production

This paper describes a proposal of a concept and a construction method for the digital eco-factory to support and promote implementation of green production. The proposed digital eco-factory is a virtual factory and IT platform for sustainable production planning. The digital eco-factory is constructed on the digital factory which is constructed by applying multi agent system technology. In the digital factory, all factory elements including produced products are configured as software agents. In the digital eco-factory the production scenario is examined both from manufacturing efficiency and an environmental view.

Manufacturing Application Interoperability using Software Capability Catalogue

A standardized methodology for manufacturing software interoperability through capability profiling is provided by the ISO 16100 series. These international standards are also applicable and usable for developing general software applications including enterprise applications. In order for users to implement the methodology presented in ISO 16100 and to get the user needed software, the definite semantics of the Capability Profile is very important in the software capability profiling. This paper proposes the way to provide a concrete method to meet the semantics requirements in the profiling and provide some tools to ensure that the data in the software Capability Profile is of clear meaning. The proposed way becomes a reality by applying the concept of an Identification Schema in eOTD of ISO 22745.

Manufacturing Software Interoperability Services Which ISO 16100 Brings about

ISO 16100 series provides a standardized methodology for the interoperability of manufacturing software using capability profiling. The method for describing software capability as Capability Profile and the way for exchanging software capability as information through Capability Profile are provided by ISO 16100. By using these two fruits from ISO 16100, two new interoperability services are proposed. One is a new manufacturing application developing method using the manufacturing software capability catalogue as cloud service. The other is a new manufacturing system configuration method by plug-and-play of manufacturing software. Finally, further enhancement of interoperability services are discussed.

An Interoperability Framework and Capability Profiling for Manufacturing Software

ISO/TC184/SC5/WG4 is working on ISO16100: Manufacturing software capability profiling for interoperability. This paper reports on a manufacturing software interoperability framework and a capability profiling methodology which were proposed and developed through this international standardization activity. Within the context of manufacturing application, a manufacturing software unit is considered to be capable of performing a specific set of function defined by a manufacturing software system architecture. A manufacturing software interoperability framework consists of a set of elements and rules for describing the capability of software units to support the requirements of a manufacturing application. The capability profiling methodology makes use of the domain-specific attributes and methods associated with each specific software unit to describe capability profiles in terms of unit name, manufacturing functions, and other needed class properties. In this methodology, manufacturing software requirements are expressed in terns of software unit capability profiles.

Usage of a Digital Eco-factory for a Printed Circuit Assembly Line

A concept called digital eco-factory (a collection of software agents that virtually represent the hardware and software facilities involved in a manufacturing system) has been developed to examine the environmental performance, productivity, and manufacturability, simultaneously, of a manufacturing system. This study reports three applications of the digital eco-factory in evaluating a printed circuit assembly (PCA) line. The first application deals with the determination of environmental performance and productivity of a PCA line for various production plans without changing the configuration of the line. The second application deals with the evaluation of the adequacy of the production plans for various PCA lines. The last application deals with the effects of an accident (e.g., machine failures) while running a PCA line. The successful implementation of the proposed digital eco-factory in the above three cases helps identify the general configuration of the digital eco-factory that can be used for other production lines.

Multi-agent based simulation of electric power consumption based on the production scenario for printed circuit assembly

In this paper, an effective usage method of a multi-agent based simulation system for sustainable production, called a digital eco-factory, is discussed through an electric power consumption simulation for a PCA (Printed Circuit Assembly). A virtual PCA line is constructed as a multi agent system by a solder-paste printer agent, several part-mounter agents and a reflow-soldering oven agent. Each machine agent models a machines behavior exactly. Electric power consumption is included as a result of machine behavior. Machine behavior is controlled by the produced product, operation and production schedule. These production data are provided to the virtual production line through PCB (Printed Circuit Board) agents. Before the power consumption simulation, the virtual factory which is usually structured from several virtual production lines is constructed as a multi-agent system. Line configuration data and production data are called a production scenario. Various production scenarios can be reviewed by using the proposed multi-agent based simulation.

Configuration Of An Autonomous Decentralized Sdigital Factory Using Product And Machine Agents

The configuration of an autonomous decentralized manufacturing system using multi agent technology is proposed to get more flexibility. In this digital factory, all elements such as machine tool, assembly machine, AGV, and product are installed as agents. The product agents take the initiatives in the system. When a blank workpiece is put on the shop floor, the product agent is dynamically generated with the product model. The product agent can autonomously plan the manufacturing process and the allocation of machines for the production of the final product through negotiations with other product agents and machine agents. The trial implementation of product agents and machine tool agents has been done by structuring a virtual machining system.