Information-Intensive
Shop Floor Automation
Challenges
for Current Equipment Control Devices and Potential Solutions
by
Jose L. Martinez Lastra
lastra@ieee.org
Tutorial at the 1st IEEE Conference on
Industrial Informatics (INDIN’03)
Abstract
In December 1997, the
National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative (NEMI) launched the NEMI Plug and
Play Factory Project. The goal of the project was to develop the necessary
infrastructure for achieving interoperability among software applications and
production equipment in electronics manufacturing. The PnP Factory project was
the initial answer to the main findings of the NEMI roadmaps in the field of
factory information systems (FIS); the roadmap identified that FIS are too
expensive and too inflexible to adapt the new business conditions in
electronics production. One of the results of the NEMI PnP Factory project was
to suggest the use of message-oriented middleware (MOM) that passes XML
messages by HTTP. As a consequence several international IPC committees were
launched in order to standardize the messages that will be exchanged. As a
result of the NEMI roadmaps, the PnP factory project and the work carried out
within the different IPC committees in order to ensure agile factory
information systems, a set of new technologies has arrived to industrial
automation from the office automation deploying computer aided manufacturing
using XML (CAMX). The need for real-time coordination, data collection, deployable
systems, reconfiguration and web access continues to grow in importance in the
field of automation. These new needs call for an information-intensive approach
to the control and supervision of automation systems that cannot be provided by
current controllers in a cost-efficient manner.
The
tutorial will provide a short journey to current factory shop automation in the
field of electronics manufacturing in order to detect current bottlenecks for
productivity. The tutorial gives a brief overview of the basic concepts
associated to the technologies deployed by the information mechanisms. It will
also provide a summary of the IPC standards in the field of factory information
systems. As consequence, the collateral effects for the equipment control
devices are investigated and potential solutions are presented to the audience.
NEMI:
National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative – an industry-led consortium
focused on facilitating leadership of the North American electronics
manufacturing supply chain (www.nemi.org).
IPC:
IPC-Association Connecting Electronics Industries®; an international industry
association of designers, printed circuit board manufacturers, electronics
assembly companies, suppliers and original equipment manufacturers; an
ANSI-accredited standards body (www.ipc.org).
CAMX: Computer Aided Manufacturing using XML; a set of IPC standards for shop floor communication (webstds.ipc.org).