Standardized computer communication : an effective alternative for the manufacturing environment

The effectiveness of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) depended on the communication capabilities among the computers in the manufacturing facility. To analyze this effectiveness, standard communication protocol was used. Two CIM concepts, the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) and the Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS), were employed for this purpose. With CAM, five ladder logic programs were tested and implemented to control the five workstations of the Manufacturing Model Factory of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. A sixth ladder program was tested and implemented for the control of the 24 cell Automated Storage/Retrieval System (ASKS). Following the concept of FMS, communication between the Plant Host, an existing node in the Manufacturing Automation Protocol (MAP) Research Network of the Department of the Electrical and Computer Engineering, and the Area Manager of the Manufacturing Model Factory was established. A MAP Network Interface Unit was used to interface the Area Manager to the MAP network. Using a third MAP node, the Order Entry Point, inventory messages were sent between the 3 nodes. An off-the-shelf data base was used to track the transactions. Comparing the use of proprietary computer network, this thesis has successfully proved that using a computer communication standard provided a feasible and effective alternative for CIM.