Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing II

IFIP - The International Federation for Information Processing

IFIP was founded in 1960 under the auspices of UNESCO, following the First World Computer Congress held in Paris the previous year. An umbrella organization for societies working in information processing, IFIP's aim is two-fold: to support information processing within its member countries and to encourage technology transfer to developing nations. As its mission statement clearly states,

IFIP's mission is to be the leading, truly international, apolitical organization which encourages and assists in the development, exploitation and application of information technology for the benefit of all people.

IFIP is a non-profitmaking organization, run almost solely by 2500 volunteers. It operates through a number of technical committees, which organize events and publications. IFIP's events range from an international congress to local seminars, but the most important are:

• The IFIP World Computer Congress, held every second year; • open conferences; • working conferences.

The flagship event is the IFIP World Computer Congress, at which both invited and contributed papers are presented. Contributed papers are rigorously refereed and the rejection rate is high.

As with the Congress, participation in the open conferences is open to all and papers may be invited or submitted. Again, submitted papers are stringently refereed.

The working conferences are structured differently. They are usually run by a working group and attendance is small and by invitation only. Their purpose is to create an atmosphere conducive to innovation and development. Refereeing is less rigorous and papers are subjected to extensive group discussion.

Publications arising from IFIP events vary. The papers presented at the IFIP World Computer Congress and at open conferences are published as conference proceedings, while the results of the working conferences are often published as collections of selected and edited papers.

Any national society whose primary activity is in information may apply to become a full member of IFIP, although full membership is restricted to one society per country. Full members are entitled to vote at the annual General Assembly, National societies preferring a less committed involvement may apply for associate or corresponding membership. Associate members enjoy the same benefits as full members, but without voting rights. Corresponding members are not represented in IFIP bodies. Affiliated membership is open to non-national societies, and individual and honorary membership schemes are also offered.

Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing II

/FIP TCS WG5.3/5.7 Third International Working Conference on the Design of Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing (DIISM'98) May 18-20, 1998, fort Worth, Texas

Edited by

John J. Mills Automation & Robotics Research Institute The University of Texas at Arlington USA

Fumihiko Kimura The University of Tokyo japan

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'' SPRINGER SCIENCE+BUSINESS MEDIA, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

IFIP TC5 WG5.3/5.7 International Working Conference on the Design of Information Systerns for Manufacturing (3rd : 1998: Fort Worth, Tex.)

Information infrastructure systems for manufacturing II: IFIP TC5 WG5.3/5.7 Third International Working Conference on the Design of Information Systems for Manufacturing (DIISM'98) : May 18-20, 1998, Fort Worth, Texas / edited by John J. Mills, Fumihiko Kimura.

Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-1-4757-5477-3 ISBN 978-0-387-35385-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-0-387-35385-2 1. Production management-Data processing Congresses. 2. Manufacturing

industries-Management-Data processing Congresses. 3. Management information systems Congresses. 4. Production planning-Data processing Congresses. I. MilIs, p. (John 1.) II. Kimura, F. (Fumihiko), 1945- III. TitIe.

TSI55.6.I445 1998 670'.285-dc21 99-27963

Copyright CI 1999 by Springer Science+Business Media New York Originally published by Kluwer Academic Publishers in 1999

CIP

AII rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photo-copying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.

Printed on acid-free pa per.

Contents

Preface Introduction: Towards an information infrastructure for

manufacturing industry

PART ONE Keynote and Invited Papers

1. PERA and GERAM - Enterprise Reference Architectures in

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Enterprise Integration 3 T. Williams, H. Li

2. Perspectives on the Future of Manufacturing Engineering 31 R. Jackson

3. Vehicle CALS-Results of a Big Challenge to Virtual Development 47 T. Mase

PART TWO Enterprise Modeling Reference Frameworks 63

4. PRE: A Framework for Enterprise Integration 65 R. Whiteside, E. Friedman-Hill, R. Detry

5. Merging a Knowledge Systematisation Framework with a Mobile Agent Architecture 79 J. Goossenaerts, A. Aerts, D. Hammer

6. Framework for Automatic Creation of Remote Operations Support Systems 93 J. Mo, L. Nemes

7. A Reference Model for Information Infrastructures 105 R. Elmasri, D. Son, J. Mills, N. Kishor

PART THREE Enterprise Modeling Methodologies 123

8. Distributed Infrastructure and Applications Modelling: DIAMond 125 J. Goossenaerts, A. Aerts, F. Mouws, R. van den Berg

9. The Needs and Issues Associated with Representing and Integrating Multiple Views of the Enterprise 139 L. Whitman, B. Huff, A. Presley

10. Information Modelling Using Product Life Cycle Views 153 R. Ander!, B. Daum, H. John, C. Putter

11. A Hybrid Manufacturing System Modeling Environment Using VRML 163 K. Krishnamurthy, J. Shewchuk, C. McLean

PART FOUR Information Infrastructures Implementations (a) 175

12. A Virtual-Reality Enhanced Integrated Process Design Environment (VR-IPDE) 177 P. Benjamin, T. Sun, R. Mayer

13. An Overview of TEAM Strategies for Integrating the Product Realization Process C. Cobb

14. CIM Framework Architecture and Application Models J. Hawker

15. Forging Die Modeling Using Rule Based System Y. Murakami, E. Arai, F. Kimura

16. An Information System Infrastructure and Applications for Improving White Collar Productivity in a Steel Manufacturing Works H Morihisa, H Ikeda, H Uchibori, R. Oshita, N. Komoda

PART FIVE Information Infrastructures Implementations (b)

17. Simulation-Based Planning and Control of Production Fractals W. Sihn

18. Network Based Production System Architecture E. Arai, M Takata

19. Authentication of Product Data and Product Components R. Ander!, M Momberg

20. Modeling and Information Structures for Supervisory Control of Flexible Manufacturing Systems D. Labalo, A. Gurel, F. Lewis, S. Bogdan

PART SIX Information Infrastructure Designs, Theories, and Language

21. A Framework for Cooperation in Virtual Enterprises L. Camarinha-Matos, C. Lima

22. AeroWEB: An Information Infrastructure for the Supply Chain J. Mills, M Brand, R. Elmasri

PART SEVEN Information Infrastructure for VE

23. A Framework for Design A Virtual Manufacturing Enterprise and

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249

251

261

275

287

303

305 323

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Its Implementation as a Workbench 339 M Zhou, L. Nemes, M Shinonome, H Hashimoto, A. Fuse, P. Bernus, G. Uppington

24. Development of an Information Technology Infrastructure for Extended Enterprise 353 M Shinonome, H Hashimoto, A. Fuse, J. Mo

25. Integrating Enterprise Models and Models for Marketing Analysis 365 T. Janowski, R. Atienza, G. Lugo

26. Coordinates: A Framework for Enterprise Modeling 379 G. Mannarino, G. Henning, H Leone

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Preface

In this global society, manufacturers compete in many ways, and information infrastructures play a critical role in ensuring the right information is available at the right time and the right place to support informed decision making. The traditional approach that assumes all information can be located on a single mainframe and accessed by everybody in the enterprise has fallen by the wayside, and new infrastructures supporting extended or virtual enterprises and globally distributed supply chains are becoming increasingly vital to successful, competitive organizations. Functions, data, and information must be made be available to all without regard to location, accessibility, or the ability to view in a native format.

This book is a result of a conference, which brought together a number of leading experts from around the world that work on topics related to the design, implementation, and use of information infrastructures for manufacturing. These experts presented their views on the state of the art, and on a wide variety of topics related to the title. The topics range from the establishment of a generic enterprise framework, which can be used for the design of a supporting information infrastructure to details of how geometric surfaces should be merged together. Although not an exhaustive publication, we believe that the publications in this book represent the state of the art in this research is essential reading for anyone who is attempting the design or development of an information infrastructure for all aspects of Manufacturing.

Each of the chapters present related presentations given by the authors at the third international conference on the Design of Information Infrastructure Systems for Manufacturing (DIISM '98) held at The University of Texas at Arlington's Automation & Robotics Research Institute (ARRI) in Fort Worth, TX from May 18-22, 1998. The conference was sponsored by the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) through Working Groups 5.3 (Computer Aided Manufacturing) and 5.7 (Computer Applications in Production Management). Other sponsors included the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA, and the CALS Connectivity Center of Fort Worth, TX, USA.

We sincerely thank all the authors, the program committee members and the conference participants for their contribution to the conference and this book.

Special thanks goes to the members of the orgamzmg committee, especially Ms. Kathleen Elfrink, Ms. Raynette Taylor, and Mr. Larry Whitman whose hard work and dedication contributed greatly to the success of the conference and the publication of this book. We would like to extend an additional thank you to Ms. Elfrink for her tenacity in preparing the final manuscript for publication. We also gratefully acknowledge the strong support of Dr. Jan Goossenaerts and Dr. Hans Wortman, who organized DIISM '96.

In conclusion, we hope that this book will be a useful source of knowledge on the state of the art and practice on Information Infrastructures for Manufacturing and that the issues and questions raised within stimulate further research into this fascinating topic.

John Mills, Fort Worth, Texas Fumihiko Kimura, Tokyo, Japan

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Introduction: Towards an information infrastructure for manufacturing industry Accelerating change, rapidly expanding access to technology, globalization of markets and competition, increasing customer expectations and ubiquitous availability and distribution of information are all drivers for today's Manufacturers.

Companies are responding to these pressures by focusing on their core competencies and continually seeking new approaches to improving responsiveness. They are forming new strategic alliances with other organizations possessing complementary core competencies needed to meet fleeting market demands. Organizational strategies include virtual and extended enterprises, improved supply chain management and optimization, integrated yet distributed (across the extended enterprise) product and process development, and increased digitalization of product and process data. Because of the shortening life cycle, these alliances may last no longer than a few months before a new alliance to address a new market opportunity become necessary. Time to market is an ever­increasing major competitive advantage

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are emerging as a critical technology component of forward looking companies. In the environment of constant and often unanticipated change, however, traditional integration approaches and strategies are unable to cope at reasonable expense. Usually taking several years to design and implement, the monolithic approach makes it difficult and expensive to change. In fact, frequently changing them takes far longer than the life of the proposed alliance. The dynamic, intrinsically heterogeneous environment of today and that of the future is posing a major challenge to the information and communication technology community. New approaches to integration of information systems are vital for today's manufacturers.

However, it is the view of many researchers that a clear and cohesive vision of how these approaches might relate to the product and process cycles is missing. It is clear that information systems must support product life cycles and business processes. Furthermore, there is a significant effort in enterprise modeling and understanding enterprise transformations. Yet, the connection between ICT and enterprise modeling is weak, and research efforts are mostly unconnected. The DIISM conferences are dedicated to the theme of fmding relationships between and among information infrastructure and enterprise modeling researchers. This introduction discusses some expected characteristics of future manufacturing enterprises, including some defmitions of virtual or extended enterprises, explains the concept of an information infrastructure and links it to these characteristics. It concludes with some suggestions for further research, which are drawn from the discussions at the DIISM 98 conference.

Characteristics of future manufacturing industries

Extended or virtual enterprises

Extended or Virtual enterprises are cooperative arrangements in which complementary core competencies from a number of companies form a new, temporary alliance to address a market need. Here the terms "Virtual" and "Extended" are used interchangeably. A core competency of a company is an area in which that company has a major competitive advantage. It can be in design, marketing, distribution, specific production processes, or any other business or engineering process in a company. It can be as small as a single key production process or as large as the Marketing Department.

Instead of trying to build competency in areas where they are weak, a company that has recognized a market demand seeks out partners with competencies, which are complimentary. Forming such an organization is difficult since not only must the organization have a complete suite of competencies required to service the market, but the cultures in the various components must be compatible, the business processes must be clearly defmed and the sharing of information is necessary. Extended or virtual enterprises often include the customer who supplies the requirements of the market. Such enterprises must also consider the disposal of the product after its useful life.

The environment for information and communications technologies in such enterprises is challenging to say the least. In this environment, not only are the data that must be exchanged and shared with partners in different formats and use divers data storage mechanisms, but communication protocols, server technologies, user interfaces, and control approaches all differ. Legacy applications and data are the norm.

Breadth and depth of the product life cycle

In the very early stages of industrialization, the artisan had to encompass all business and engineering processes. He was the marketeer. the designer, the production planner, the accountant, and often the worker on the shop floor. This natural 'integration disappeared with the advent of Taylorism in which work was divided into small increments which one person could easily actualize. The recent trends illustrated by such concepts as concurrent engineering, and integrated product and process design, seek to bring all the disciplines required in the design and production of a product back together, particularly during the design and development phase. With increasing frequency, designers have to account for the disposal of the product at the end of its useful life. Recycling products with new features added is increasing. A further trend is that products contain more

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software, which is becoming a major cost driver. Co-design of hardware and software is becoming increasingly more important.

Digital form of the information required at each stage

Integration of all the disciplines required to design and produce a high quality product can be achieved by non-technical means. However, sharing of paper drawings and redoing paperwork is no longer an option if a company is going to be first to market. Digitization of product data is a necessity of modem life. There are two aspects to this trend: virtual prototyping and electronic collaboration. Virtual prototyping occurs when the design team can simulate in a computer both the operation of a product in its environment and its total production, before any hardware has been created. Virtual prototyping allows companies to dramatically accelerate the product design cycle since they can identify a large fraction of potential problems from the simulations before the product reaches service. Virtual prototyping reaches from simple fitting of geometric models to a fmite element analyses of the forging process to flying aircraft or driving cars in synthetic environments. Electronic collaboration allows the design team to be located anywhere in the world, yet simultaneously view models and simulations with other team members so that joint decisions can be made almost instantaneously.

Information Infrastructures

Many current information systems were designed when mainframes were predominant. Because of the size of the investment in hardware and software, many of these systems are still running major business applications today.

With the advent of the PC, use of such monolithic systems is declining, but they are still a mainstay of many organizations. A major trend was to client/server computing, which still involved the main frame as the server, but took advantage of the local processing power available in the PC. The current trend is to network computing or distributed computing where data and functions are located anywhere on a network (e.g. Internet) and available to anyone.

Information Infrastructures are support systems to enable the creation of information systems to meet business needs. One concept described in this book is an information infrastructure, which allows various components (data, applications, functions, machines, and people) to be dynamically inserted or insert themselves to function as a new system. Distributed object oriented frameworks are one approach to this concept, but there are others as can be seen by reading this book. If they are designed correctly - and no one really knows what that means at present - they can become an enabler for extended enterprises, digital prototyping and integrated product and process development.

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Enterprise Models

A common understanding of the enterprise is critical for any improvement effort. Without models, it is difficult to perform any kind of engineering. Therefore, it is imperative that any ICT effort fully grasp the implications of any type of change including new technologies and infrastructures to support these technologies. Enterprise models enable the common understanding of various aspects of the enterprise. Emerging modeling methodologies and architectures bring the necessity of enterprise models into real world implementations. Models must be considered as a tool for: common understanding, decision-making, enterprise control, and the actual execution of the business of the enterprise. To use models for only one or two of these manners is to minimize the effectiveness of such a resource.

The models also must be used to describe the enterprise in a holistic manner. If an ICT is implemented with only regard to the "main" requirements, benefits of the new infrastructure may be lost. An enterprise model is by its very defmition about the entire enterprise and considers all aspects of the enterprise, which includes the strategy of the enterprise, the people and the culture of the enterprise, the processes, and the technology of the enterprise.

Future research needs

One of the more notable conclusions which can be deduced from the papers at this conference is the continuing disconnect between enterprise modeling and information infrastructures. It was clear from the papers that the two research areas still did not refer to papers in the other area. By providing a common forum, opportunity for more integration of the two domains should occur. Unfortunately, this has not yet occurred. Perhaps the organizers of the next DIISM conference could force the issue by asking specifically for papers in which the two domains are discussed together. Along a related vein, there is a multitude of approaches to information infrastructures themselves. Comparison and identification of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach, and the particular environments for which they are most appropriate would help researchers and those dedicated to implementation ofiCT understand which approach is appropriate to their particular environment.

It is apparent that, in the ICT domain, we do not understand the interaction among technology advances, business processes, and the culture of the people. One approach in the past is that we start by simplifying and redesigning the process for automation, then develop an information system to support the new simplified process. However, ICT can so radically change processes, that it is frequently not possible to design the process before the technology is introduced. We also know that some people easily adapt to working with new technology while others resist the same technology most strongly. This area for research is also related to the

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disconnect between ICT and Enterprise Modeling. More research involving research in human behavior is required to understand this interaction.

There is a lack of common standards or too many standards for a variety of areas: product design, communications, enterprise models. In product design, STEP is slowly emerging as an extremely complex approach to standards for product representation. While there are now STEP standards for some aspects of product representation, vendors still wish to retain the competitive advantage of their particular representation resulting in many unneeded translators. Moreover, the representation technology is changing so rapidly that a new methodology may emerge before agreement is reached on the current approaches.

In this book, there is strong emphasis on the object-oriented paradigm to the neglect of other possibilities (e.g. functional programming, holons, monads). While 00 is a powerful methodology and there appears to be an emerging 00 modeling standard (e.g. UML), there is evidence emerging that sometimes functional approaches are shoehorned into the 00 paradigm without much thought on how the project goal could perhaps be better reached. For example, while a business can be represented by objects quite well, the flow of information through a business process is intrinsically functional. An activity in a process, and actually the whole process, transforms an input set of data into an output set. Some recent work on Monads as functional programming modules is relevant here. Research on the appropriateness of 00 technology in its current form for automating business processes would help clarify this issue.

About this book

This book brings together a number of leading experts from around the world who have worked extensively on these and related topics. Experts from industry, consultants and researchers put their views forward on the current levels of industrial awareness, standards development, and research and development. These proceedings do not offer solutions for all the problems listed before, but it gives a fair overview of ongoing efforts and results on which to base further cooperative research and development. We hope that this book will be a useful source of information for further research and development on information infrastructures for manufacturing, and that it may nurture solutions for the open problems highlighted during the conference.

John Mills Fumihiko Kimura Fort Worth, Texas and Tokyo, Japan, 1998

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