Simona Iuliana Caramihai

Supervisory control and data acquisition for virtual enterprise

The new manufacturing paradigms, such as agile manufacture and lean production, are leading industrial countries towards the new generation of concurrent enterprises involving virtual enterprise architecture and concurrent engineering extended methodology. Continuing adaptation to the market can only be achieved efficiently if the planning and control processes are both optimized horizontally (Automatic Control Systems) and vertically (Management Control Systems). The desired improvement in performance and the realization of global enterprise objectives require a tight integration of the units of the enterprise. The close monitoring of the operational performance of various plants, manufacturing shop-floors/cells/machines, as well as their associated instrumentation and control is of increasing strategic importance. Failures can lead to increased costs and reduced product quality, consistency and production, and to plant shutdowns and increased environmental impact. There is a real need for advanced monitoring technologies to be applied, and their potential demonstrated, on complex industrial plants. The planning and scheduling of manufacturing systems integrated into virtual enterprise architectures requires the implementation of new General Master Production Planning and Scheduling techniques and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) functions. This paper discusses some key issues on the SCADA-oriented open system for virtual enterprise architecture.

Intelligent agent-based control systems in manufacturing

The paper presents a real-time supervisory control architecture for large-scale manufacturing systems. The architecture is based on autonomous intelligent agents at the shop-floor level, organized in dynamical, reconfigurable structures depending on the manufacturing systems state and goals. The supervisory level is introduced in order to evaluate and improve the performances of the control architecture. Functioning of the whole architecture is event-driven and based on rules that the supervisor should be capable of completing. The formal support for performance evaluation and control policies synthesis is DES.

The Intelligent Manufacturing Paradigm in Knowledge Society

The today society has to face great challenges due, ironically, to its own development capacity and speed, that resulted in phenomena like globalization and competition, in a more and more rapidly changing environment. The development of Information & Communication Technologies (ICT), which was intent to solve usual problems, became actually a driver for the increased complexity of socioeconomical advance. In this context, especially in manufacturing, the role of human resources was, for the last century, ambiguous, with balances between the trends that relied mostly on technology and those that trusted human superiority. Actually, it is the role of knowledge management, as a relatively new discipline, to find a way by which humans and technology could optimally collaborate, towards the benefits and satisfaction of whole society. This work intends to propose some functioning principles for knowledge management architectures, where human and software agents could coexist and share knowledge, in order to solve new problems. The authors have taken into account researches in the fields of manufacturing system, as well as from the area of knowledge management, control systems, organizational research and complexity analysis, in order to develop a model for the imbricate development of manufacturing and knowledge. The first part presents the evolution of manufacturing paradigm, underlining the parallel development of ICT and knowledge management. The second one focuses on the paradigm of Intelligent Manufacturing and presents some of the developed control approaches based on complexity theory and multi-agent systems. The following part presents some developments in the field of the knowledge management and the last ones introduce the authors view on the subject. Finally, some future trends towards a knowledge society where humans and software agents will symbiotically work through their mutual progress and satisfaction are suggested. 4

From Mass Production to Intelligent Cyber-Enterprise

The paper proposes a new paradigm for the enterprise of the future, with respect to the requirements and the constraints it will be forced to face in order to progress and evolve. It is a paradigm which will take into account not only the complex relations between enterprise components - human, material and informational, but also the integration enterprise-society will all its aspects. There are presented some of the main trends in the control and management of manufacturing systems, in order to enlighten the evolution of the concepts towards that of Cyber-Physical Systems, which is the core of the proposed paradigm. A generic model of the next generation of Manufacturing Systems will be introduced, based on the paradigm of Intelligent Cyber-Enterprise.

Knowledge Management Based Supply Chain in Learning Organization

Abstract The rapid increasing global systems complexity within the Knowledge Based Economy, the driver for the new coming Knowledge Society, provides “great challenges” to be undertaken within the innovative thinking in diversity. The authors goal within the present paper is to conceptualize the skills formation using a Knowledge Society paradigm approach to ensure efficient synchronization between the Adaptive Virtual Organization and Knowledge Management concepts by identifying a set of common activities performed with the aim of assisting the Adaptive Virtual Organization in meeting the going demand for knowledge of todays global economy. Therefore the need for implementing a Learning Organization concept as to offer the needed support within the Enterprise Information System Supply Chain Management becomes a great necessity.

The Future of Knowledge in Manufacturing Systems in the Future Era of Internet of Things

Abstract Current R&D activities, sustained by the European Commission and by FP7 financial support are focusing on the development and standardization of new technologies to sustain the “Future Internet”. In this context the development of new Internet related concepts and technologies oriented towards providing positive benefits for individuals, society, economy, culture and environment has been included in a broad concept of Future Internet Systems. One of the paradigms proposed in this area is the “Internet of Things”. The future of the manufacturing oriented knowledge management that use the concept of Internet of Things will be characterized by emerging intelligence that could be obtained by a future enterprise from the information detained by its components, contextualized for reflecting a given situation.

Towards A General Systems Theory Approach for Developing Concurrent Engineering Science

Information, as a specific commodity, sustains our knowledge production in every domain of human activities. But the Knowledge-based Economy (KbE), requires intensive information and Knowledge Management. The KM is the key-factor of enterprises competitiveness (LS- large scale enterprises; SME- small and medium size Enterprise ;μE- micro size enterprises). Even the e-workers, immersed in Professional Virtual Communities must use efectively both basic concepts, methodology, methods and techniques from concurent engineering science. To design the Complex Adaptive Systems, is our our long-term research target. The present paper is an ambitious attempt to initiate a global collaborative project for the DCCE scientifically foundation based on General Systems Theory holistic approach.

Agricultural Enterprise as a Complex System: A Cyber Physical Systems Approach

The paper intends to define the future agricultural enterprise as a complex system, based on the sustainability concept, and to propose a control approach ensuring its proactivity versus environmental and market changes, based on agent-oriented behavior and Cyber-Physical Systems.

The Enterprise of Future as a Cyber-Physical System

Abstract The paper presents a conceptual model of the manufacturing enterprise of the future, which is centered on knowledge. It is introduced the concept of organizational wisdom, as an intelligence level that allows manufacturing enterprise to take sustainable decisions. Cyber-Physical Systems concept is the most promising approach to implement the knowledge/ wisdom model of the enterprise.

A DES-supported agent-based control architecture for flexible manufacturing systems

Abstract The paper presents a methodology for the synthesis of a supervisor based on a Petri Net model. This supervisor is used for the real-time control of a Flexible Manufacturing System by a two layer agent-based architecture. The structure and functioning of the architecture as well as the FMS modeling approach are also described in the paper. The synthesis methodology was implemented into a software application, which was used on a case study.