Model of Production Planning and Scheduling in Shop Floor Based on Collaboration and Competition

The planning and scheduling in real shop floor is actually achieved by coordination between different persons. In this process, cooperation is mainstream, but competition also exists, for example, the competition between different groups, operators with the same skill, etc. In multi-agent based shop floor management and control system, this competition and cooperation relation must be embodied. The general process of shop floor production planning and scheduling is studied, and a colored Petri-net model for the competition and cooperation process of three main agents in such system to achieve shop floor production planning and scheduling is presented. The evaluating method of bids in bidding process that especially embodies the competition relationship is also presented. This colored Petri-net model gives a clear illustration of this complex coordination process to system designers, effectively promotes the cooperative development.

MODELING AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A DISTRIBUTED SHOP FLOOR MANAGEMENT AND CONTROL SYSTEM

Adopting distributed control architecture is the important developmentdirection for shop floor management and control system, is also the requirement of making it agile,intelligent and concurrent. Some key problems in achieving distributed control architecture areresearched. An activity model of shop floor is presented as the requirement definition of theprototype system. The multi-agent based software architecture is constructed. How the core part inshop floor management and control system, production plan and scheduling is achieved. Thecooperation of different agents is illustrated. Finally, the implementation of the prototype systemis narrated.

An Improved Production Activity Control Architecture for Shop Floor Control

This paper presents a further improved Production Activity Control Architecture to deal with the complexity of information by creating Sub-Producers and Sub-Movers which will not only give a better control at workstation level but also reduce load on the Dispatcher. It also makes an analysis of the basic and improved PAC (Production Activity Control) Architecture in the Control System for Integrated Manufacturing. The PAC Architecture and the improvement will further enhance the flexibility and adaptability of the architecture in the ever changing environment of the Shop Floor Control (SFC) Systems.

An Improved PAC Architecture for Shop Floor Information System in Digital Manufacturing

In order to overcome the weakness of the former production activity control （PAC） architecture, this paper presents an improved PAC architecture. The BIT-PAC architecture has been applied with the use of information technology. It facilitates the information flow from Shop Floor to other areas of the organization and makes the organizations more integrated and productive. This architecture also facilitates the expansion of the Shop Floor functions without disturbing the basic infrastructure. Effectiveness of the BIT-PAC architecture was checked by developing and running application software on a network PC which has supported the dynamic flow of information from Sub-Producers and Sub-Movers to other areas of organization.

APPLICATION OF IMPROVED PRODUCTION ACTIVITY CONTROL ARCHITECTURE FOR SHOP FLOOR INFORMATION SYSTEM IN DIGITAL MANUFACTURING

Shop floor control （SFC） is responsible for the coordination and control of the manufacturing physical and information flow within the shop floor in the manufacturing system. Weaknesses of the production activity control （PAC） architecture of the shop floor are addressed by the Maglica＇s new system architecture. This architecture gives rise to unlimited number of movers and producers thus evolving more complex but decentralized architecture. Beijing Institute of Technology - production activity control （BIT-PAC） architecture introduces an idea of sub-producars and sub-movers thus reducing the complexity of the architecture. All the equipments including sub-producars and sub-movers are considered to be passive in the proposed shop floor information system. The dissemination of information from sub-producers and sub-movers is done manually through a PC. Proposed BIT-PAC SFC architecture facilitates the information flow from shop floor to the other area of the organization. Effective use of interact information services （IIS） and SQL2000 is done along with the ASP.NET technology to implement the application logic. Applicability of the software based on BIT-PAC architecture is checked by running application software on a network PC that supports the dynamic flow of information from sub-producers and sub-movers to the other parts of the organization. Use of software is also shown at the end for BIT training workshop thus supporting the use of SFC architecture for similar kind of environments.

Collection and Management of Shop-floor Controller Data

This paper describes shop floor data collection and management. An architecture is presented for a shop floor data collection and management system based on the analysis of the features of these data. Two critical aspects of the system are discussed in detail: the various communication protocols between computers and machines, and the real time demands of the shop floor controller.