Material-flow Modeling Technology and Its Application in Manufacturing Execution Systems of Petrochemical Industry

The management and control of material flow forms the core of manufacturing execution systems （MES） in the petrochemical industry. The bottleneck in the application of MES is the ability to match the material-flow model with the production processes. A dynamic material-flow model is proposed in this paper after an analysis of the material-flow characteristics of the production process in a petrochemical industry. The main material-flow events are described, including the movement, storage, shifting, recycling, and elimination of the materials. The spatial and temporal characters of the material-flow events are described, and the material-flow model is constructed. The dynamic material-flow model introduced herein is the basis for other subsystems in the MES. In addition, it is the subsystem with the least scale in MES. The dynamic-modeling method of material flow has been applied in the development of the SinoMES model. It helps the petrochemical plant to manage the entire flow information related to tanks and equipments from the aspects of measurement, storage, movement, and the remaining balance of the material. As a result, it matches the production process by error elimination and data reconciliation. In addition, it facilitates the integration of application modules into the MES and guarantees the potential development of SinoMES in future applications.

A Novel Mechanism for TRF of Plant-wide Material Flows in Process Industry MES

This paper is standing on the recent viewpoint originated from relevant industrial practices that well or-ganized tracing, representing and feedback(TRF) mechanism of material-flow information is crucial for system utility and usability of manufacturing execution systems(MES), essentially, for activities on the side of multi-level decision making and optimization mainly in the planning and scheduling. In this paper, we investigate a key issue emphasized on a route of multi-level information evolution on the side of large-scale feedback, where material-flow states could evolve from the measuring data(local states) to networked event-type information cells(global states) and consequently to the key performance indicators(KPI) type information(gross states). Importantly, with adapta-bilities to frequent structural dynamics residing in running material flows, this evolving route should be modeled as a suit of sophisticated mechanism for large-scale dynamic states tracking and representing so as to upgrade accu-racy and usability of the feedback information in MES. To clarify inherent complexities of this evolving route, the investigated issue is demonstrated from extended process systems engineering(PSE) point of view, and the TRF principles of the multi-level feedback information(states) are highlighted under the multi-scale methodology. As the main contribution, a novel mechanism called TRF modeling mechanism is introduced.

A framework for ICT-enabled real-time production planning and control

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for real-time production planning and control（PPC）.Firstly,we discuss the most prominently applied contemporary information and communication technologies for PPC.Enterprise resource planning（ERP） systems that integrate the value chain in an enterprise,manufacturing execution systems that manage and control the production on shopfloor,and advanced planning and scheduling（APS）systems that develop solutions for complex planning problems are the planning and control systems that have been analyzed.We emphasize the application of radio frequency identification as the most advanced and promising emerging real-time data capture technology that is currently available to manufacturers.Having analyzed the features and shortcomings of the individual systems perse,and by considering the advantages that may be realized through effective integration of these otherwise discrete systems,we propose a framework for real-time PPC.