Ill

ABSTRACT

Research towards CIM has concentrated on the computerization of

individual functions of manufacturing, dealing with product and process design,
production planning and job execution (such as CAD, CAM, CAPP, SFC, Data
management, etc.) and could not represent a complete automation program, but
a program for robustness in a hectic production environment. The design of
such systems was made in a functional fashion that emphasised local solutions,
using closed and self-contained architectures.

To satisfy the evolving market needs, the manufacturing facilities

would need to integrate the plant automation layer with enterprise business
systems in order to bring their manufacturing facilities under control, and pave
the way for the development of Integrated Automation System (IAS). This
thesis contributes to this new approach by seeking inspiration in the structure
and the dynamics of complex adaptive systems and develops a methodology for
the implementation of Integrated Automation System (IAS).

The IAS provides high reliability, better information flow, decision

support infrastructure, and increased responsiveness. Besides, it would lead to
reuse of existing objects and is based on the integration of different functions of
the enterprise into a single optimized model and enable firms to turn
environmental trends (rapid market changes, increasing complexity, declining
opportunities, economics of sale) into opportunities for gaining a competitive
advantage.
 IV

The methodology incorporates the identification of the Critical

Success Factors (CSFs) for the successful implementation of IAS, modelling
the envisaged CIM based IAS using CIMOSA and Petri net, developing an
Integrating Infrastructure and a holonic control architecture.

The CSFs predict that significant benefits will be achieved only when
technology and processes are integrated and key success factors are considered
and reveal the fact that system integration should be achieved in a cohesive
manner to provide a complete and intelligent solution. The architectural
modelling for the design and implementation of integrated automation system
has been presented using CIMOSA, and the performance has been modeled
using Petri-net. The Integrating Infrastructure (IIS) for the implementation of
IAS provides a unified integration interface, which enables quick and efficient
integration of different applications in various manufacturing environments. IIS
establishes a Knowledge base to control information flow and establish
functional relationships among enterprise modules. A method to reuse the
existing Internet infrastructure for transforming the plant information to
wireless / mobile devices is also established. To combine robustness against
disturbances and unforeseen changes with performance optimization and
predictability, holonic control architecture has been presented to realise an agile
manufacturing enterprise. The control architecture for Integrated Automation
Systems satisfies requirements such as autonomy, reliability, fault-tolerance,
interoperability, re-configurability, and other real-time functionalities.

The above methodology has been implemented in an enterprise and

the results show that the production has indeed optimized to predicted
standards. The CIM model developed for this industry made possible effective
implementation of IAS.