Applying Java technology to manufacturing integration and automation

摘要

Most manufacturing systems are global and face similar challenges of shortened product lifecycle, competitive pricing, high quality and reliability, and agile operations. As the Internet speeds the rate of business activities, it becomes even more crucial to be in a position to respond to a fast-changing business climate. Effective business operation in such an environment depends on information flow throughout the company, from the factory floor to the boardroom. This necessitates integrating information technology throughout the organization, including the business and manufacturing operations. Existing industrial systems, however, have produced large, mostly proprietary, embedded computer-based systems that are almost completely outside of the company's primary computing environment, and thus are not integrated into the company's enterprise system. In order to achieve an agile operation, enterprise computing and industrial automation must be unified. This paper presents the characteristics of each of these domains and defines the requirements, conditions, and technology necessary to integrate them for total enterprise automation and interoperability. We further discuss the benefits of such a system and present how object-oriented and networking technologies in general, and Java and Internet technologies in particular, can help integrate industrial and manufacturing operations with the rest of the enterprise information technology. This integration could create knowledge-driven systems that would result in more agile, efficient, and responsive manufacturing and production systems.