Tobias Voigt

Model driven engineering of manufacturing execution systems using a formal specification

Industrial manufacturing processes are complex processes, where transparency of every process step is necessary to achieve a high level of quality and efficiency. In order to achieve this transparency, manufacturing execution systems (MES) are used. However, as these systems are very expensive, mainly due to individual programming effort, MES usage is oftentimes limited to larger companies. To ultimately reduce implementation costs for MES, the current research project AutoMES proposes a standardized, model-based approach to facilitate automatic generation of MES functions. This paper presents requirements on a suitable modeling language, as well as how these requirements are fulfilled by the modeling language used in the AutoMES project. The modeling language is an extension of the MES Modeling Language (MES-ML), a modeling language for the specification of MES. With the use of the extended MES-ML it is possible to generate a generic, machine-usable MES specification, suitable for code generation. To evaluate the proposed modeling language extensions, an industrial brewing process has been modeled and verified by MES engineers during the project AutoMES.

Automatische Generierung von Fertigungs-Managementsystemen

Eine wesentliche Herausforderung von Industrie 4.0 ist die vertikale Integration der Produktionsebenen mit ihren eingebetteten Systemen. Manufacturing Execution Systeme (MES) spielen dabei ein zentrale Rolle, da sie das Bindeglied zwischen dem Enterprise Ressource Planning (ERP) System und der Produktionswelt darstellen.

Basis for the model-driven engineering of manufacturing execution systems: Modeling elements in the domain of beer brewing

Abstract Manufacturing execution systems (MES) are process-oriented IT solutions that collect and manage information from manufacturing processes to improve transparency. Owing to the considerable programming effort required for the implementation of custom systems for specific production processes, investing in MES is not an option for many food and beverage manufacturers. Model-driven engineering (MDE) is one solution for reducing the implementation costs involved in custom systems. However, a concrete MDE approach that fulfills the requirements of the food and beverage industry has not yet been established for MES. With this background, this paper introduces an MDE approach for MES and focuses on the first step in implementing this approach by defining the modeling elements of MES functions that enable the automatic transformation from models into an operational MES. The modeling elements are defined for the four components of an MES solution: the plant model illustrating the technical systems, the process model describing the production processes, the MES function model representing the required MES functions and the report model showing the results of MES functions. A use case in the domain of beer brewing is presented to evaluate the proposed approach. This use case demonstrates the feasibility and suitability of predefined modeling elements in the modeling phase for automatic MES generation.