Rui M. Sousa

Production Modelling as Shell Programming: Operations and Processes

Abstract We demonstrate how to build and execute models of production systems using some of the Unix system tools, in particular for text processing (awk) and process management (bash). We use text files to represent the state of the system, implement production operations as fully automated text transformations and compose such operations into a process for their sequential execution. As the models are implementation-dependent, we also provide their formalisation in a specification language rsl. A simple case study illustrates the presentation.

Production modelling as shell programming: Concurrency and delegation

Abstract We show how to build and execute models of concurrent/distributed production cells using some of the Unix system tools, in particular for text processing (Awk), process management (Bash) and information exchange (Mail). We use text files to represent the state of a cell, implement production operations as text-transformations, compose them into one or several processes for their sequential/concurrent execution, and allow remote processes (located in different cells) to communicate by email’s. The models are highly configurable, able to represent assembly lines, flexible manufacturing systems, even virtual organisations. We also formalise them in a specification language RSL.