In this paper an analysis of the Common Information Model (CIM) standard for object-oriented information specification in network and system management is given, including a short discussion of several important potential benefits and open issues, and a presentation of original extensions of the standard solutions to some open issues.

This case study describes an Asian Information Technology (IT) outsourcing partnership in the discrete manufacturing industry. Interviews with business and IT executives of both the Outsourcing Company and the IT Services Supplier provided the necessary insights. Nowadays many organizations in discrete manufacturing move their plants to Asian countries or other lower wages countries. Most IT se...

This paper discusses the conceptual structure and implementation of an integrated, computer-aided manufacturing system design environment, known as I/O-CAMSD (integrated and open computer-aided manufacturing system design). The work has provided valuable information to prove the feasibility of developing an integrated CAMSD framework to support the complete cycle of manufacturing operation—from...

This chapter presents some of the issues with holonic manufacturing systems. It starts by presenting the current manufacturing scenario and trends and then provides some background information on the holonic concept and its application to manufacturing. The current limitations and future trends of manufacturing suggest more autonomous and distributed organisations for manufacturing systems; hol...

In recent years, artificial neural networks have been applied to solve a variety of problems in numerous areas of manufacturing at both system and process levels. The manufacturing applications of neural networks comprise the design of manufacturing systems (including part-family and machine-cell formation for cellular manufacturing systems); modeling, planning, and scheduling of manufacturing ...

Manufacturing systems are experiencing several trends which are increasing the importance of the control system as a component of the overall manufacturing system. Among these trends are increased levels of automation, increasing differentiation and customization of products, and increased demands on system performance. A control system must coordinate the various activities of a manufacturing ...

Agent based distributed manufacturing control and scheduling systems are subsets of new manufacturing systems. Multi agent systems (MAS) not only drive design and engineering control solutions but also influence flexibility, agility, and re-configurability, which makes MASs a better centralized systems than its traditional counterparts. However, implementation of all MASs in the real factories ...