Developing Model-Based Tools for the Design and Improvement of Manufacturing Systems

The vision is to create enterprise-grade software tools supporting the design and improvement of manufacturing systems, tools that can provide answers to fundamental business questions about product selection, resource planning, scheduling, and logistical control – quickly, accurately, and with adequate consideration of risk. Objectives accomplished in Phase I included adding formality and rigor to a widely-adopted manufacturing system modeling language, delineating scope and boundary limitations for language extensions, and demonstrating automated formulation of computational analysis to answer routine questions about expected cycle time, throughput, capacity, and inventory levels. Phase II objectives include maturing behavioral and control definitions in reference models, integrating SysML-language reference models with software implementations, formalizing system – analysis integration, and extending the manufacturing system modeling language to express components of resource planning and scheduling problems. At the conclusion of the work we will have a software tool that we can demonstrate to potential customers and test within their production environments.