Virtual commissioning (VC) of manufacturing systems has been researched for more than 10 years. Its intention is to test manufacturing systems and associated control programs through simulation conducted before the real systems are realised. The expected benefits in reducing debugging and correction efforts expended during real commissioning, however, can only be achieved if sufficiently detail...

The globalization of markets and world-wide competition forces manufacturing enterprises to enter into alliances leading to the creation of distributed manufacturing enterprises. Before forming a partnership it is essential to evaluate viability of proposed enterprise as well as how a company’s operations are affected by the proposed virtual enterprise. Distributed simulation provides an attrac...

Both researchers and industrial engineers interested in Manufacturing Scheduling and Control (MSC) are frustrated by the complexity of the problem and the wide range of approaches that have been proposed. The research environment often discourages scientists from the extensive effort and hands-on experience needed to gain a realistic view of the problem, and manufacturing engineers have no way ...

Our research focused on the analysis of face-to-face (FTF) social interaction of groups working on maths problems using the GCC framework in traditional classroom setting. The GCC framework requires students to analyze maths problems with "solutions" that contained conceptual or oversight errors, critique these solutions with mathematical arguments, and finally fix the "solutions" collaborative...

Reconfigurable machines form a new class of machines that are designed around a specific part family of products and allow rapid change in their structure. They are designed to allow changes in machine configuration according to changes in production requirements. The reconfiguration may be related to changes in machine functionality or its scalability, i.e., the change in production volumes or...

Virtual Prototyping (VP) technique has been interpreted in many different ways, which causes confusion and misunderstanding among researchers and practitioners. Based on a review of the current related research and application, this paper proposes a definition of VP as well as components of a virtual prototype. VP is then compared with and distinguished from virtual reality (VR), virtual enviro...

An essential part of a modern economy is an information market. In this market, information products are being traded in countless ways. Information is bought, modified, integrated, incorporated into other products and then sold again. Usually, the manufacturing of an information product requires the collaboration of several participants. A virtual enterprise is a community of business entities...