Manufacturing plays a central role in successfully competing in international markets. Improving a company's manufacturing capability and, consequently its posture in global markets, requires that the company respond more rapidly to market opportunities. The rate at which new product ideas mature to commodity status is increasing, resulting in a growing emphasis on time-to-market as a key competitive differentiator. Realizing these new efficiencies in product development requires that organizations interconnect, software systems interoperate, and individuals interact. These challenges are being addressed by the National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP) Consortium in its work to define and develop virtual enterprise technology. This paper presents an overview of NIIIP technology and discusses a program deploying NIIIP technology to establish new standards for integrating manufacturing applications, focusing on manufacturing execution systems.

The technologies enabling agile manufacturing (TEAM) program enhances industrial capability by advancing and deploying manufacturing technologies that promote agility. TEAM has developed a product realization process that features the integration of product design and manufacturing groups. TEAM uses the tools it collects, develops, and integrates in support of the product realization process to demonstrate and deploy agile manufacturing capabilities for three high- priority processes identified by industry: material removal, forming, and electromechanical assembly. In order to provide a proof-of-principle, the material removal process has been addressed first and has been successfully demonstrate din an 'interconnected' mode. An internet-accessible intersite file manager (IFM) application has been deployed to allow geographically distributed TEAM participants to share and distribute information as the product realization process is executed. An automated inspection planning application has been demonstrated, importing a solid model form the IFM, generating an inspection plan and a part program to be used in the inspection process, and then distributing the part program to the inspection site via the IFM. TEAM seeks to demonstrate the material removal process in an integrated mode in June 1997 complete with an object-oriented framework and infrastructure. The current status and future plans for this project are presented here.

The survivor in today's market environment is agile: able to survive and thrive in a market place marked by rapid, continuous change. For manufacturers, this includes an ability to rapidly develop, deploy and reconfigure manufacturing information and control systems. The SEMATECH CIM framework defines an application integration architecture and standard application components that enable agile manufacturing information and control systems. Further, the CIM framework and its evolution process foster virtual organizations of suppliers and manufacturers, combining their products and capabilities into an agile manufacturing information and control system.

Recent developments have made it possible to interoperate complex business applications at much lower costs. Application interoperation, along with business process re- engineering can result in significant savings by eliminating work created by disconnected business processes due to isolated business applications. However, we believe much greater productivity benefits can be achieved by facilitating timely decision-making, utilizing information from multiple enterprise perspectives. The CIIMPLEX enterprise integration architecture is designed to enable such productivity gains by helping people to carry out integrated enterprise scenarios. An enterprise scenario is triggered typically by some external event. The goal of an enterprise scenario is to make the right decisions considering the full context of the problem. Enterprise scenarios are difficult for people to carry out because of the interdependencies among various actions. One can easily be overwhelmed by the large amount of information. We propose the use of software agents to help gathering relevant information and present them in the appropriate context of an enterprise scenario. The CIIMPLEX enterprise integration architecture is based on the FAIME methodology for application interoperation and plug-and-play. It also explores the use of software agents in application plug-and- play.

Industry need for standards to support integration of distributed manufacturing information technology systems is driving a process for creating validated pre-standard specifications. These specifications are likely to be the basis for manufacturing information technology standards in the future. The framework for discrete parts manufacturing information technology standards in the future. The framework for discrete parts manufacturing project has implemented a distributed manufacturing software systems as a basis for validation testing and analysis of emerging manufacturing information technologies. This paper describes a testbed project for validation of pre-standard specifications for integration of distributed manufacturing information technology system. This project begins with a scenario for manufacturing operations and deploys several related specifications against this scenario. This deployment provides the opportunity for analysis and local validation of the specifications. It also provides the opportunity to explore the relationship among several specifications that could be the basis for standards in the future. This paper discusses the preliminary implementation of the specifications under analysis and projects future work involved in validation testing of industry consortia developed manufacturing information technology specifications.

We describe a flexible, distributed system architecture capable of supporting collaborative design and fabrication of semi-conductor devices and integrated circuits. Such capabilities are of particular importance in the development of new technologies, where both equipment and expertise are limited. Distributed fabrication enables direct, remote, physical experimentation in the development of leading edge technology, where the necessary manufacturing resources are new, expensive, and scarce. Computational resources, software, processing equipment, and people may all be widely distributed; their effective integration is essential in order to achieve the realization of new technologies for specific product requirements. Our architecture leverages is essential in order to achieve the realization of new technologies for specific product requirements. Our architecture leverages current vendor and consortia developments to define software interfaces and infrastructure based on existing and merging networking, CIM, and CAD standards. Process engineers and product designers access processing and simulation results through a common interface and collaborate across the distributed manufacturing environment.

It is critical in today's enterprises that manufacturing facilities are not isolated from design, planning, and other business activities and that information flows easily and bidirectionally between these activities. It is also important and cost-effective that COTS software, databases, and corporate legacy codes are well integrated in the information architecture. Further, much of the information generated during manufacturing must be dynamically accessible to engineering and business operations both in a restricted corporate intranet and on the internet. The software integration strategy in the Sandia Agile Manufacturing Testbed supports these enterprise requirements. We are developing a CORBA-based distributed object software system for manufacturing. Each physical machining device is a CORBA object and exports a common IDL interface to allow for rapid and dynamic insertion, deletion, and upgrading within the manufacturing cell. Cell management CORBA components access manufacturing devices without knowledge of any device-specific implementation. To support information flow from design to planning data is accessible to machinists on the shop floor. CORBA allows manufacturing components to be easily accessible to the enterprise. Dynamic clients can be created using web browsers and portable Java GUI's. A CORBA-OLE adapter allows integration to PC desktop applications. Other commercial software can access CORBA network objects in the information architecture through vendor API's.

Virtual enterprise (VE) gateways are one of the approaches being studied by the NIIIP consortium for building the virtual enterprise, defined as a temporary alliance of companies to address fast-changing business opportunities. VE gateways are software entities that link dissimilar management and programming domains over untrusted networks such as the Internet in order to provide a secure communications infrastructure, for member enterprise control of resources in a peer-to-peer manner; and for integrated VE-wide administration. This paper discusses the concepts, architectures, and prototype implementations of VE gateways under development for NIIIP.

This research is concerned with the design, development and implementation of a unique reaction-based multi-agent architecture (REAGERE) to integrate and control a manufacturing domain, by combining concepts from distributed problem solving and multi-agent systems. This architecture represents an emerging concept of reifying the parts, equipment, and software packages of the domain as individual agent entities. This research also improves on earlier top- down automated manufacturing systems, that suffered from lack of flexibility, upgradability, overhead difficulties, and performance problems when presented with the uncertainty and dynamics of modern competitive environments. The versatility of the domain is enhanced with the independent development of the agents and the object-oriented events that permit the agents to communicate through the underlying blackboard architecture BB1. This bottom-up concept permits the architecture's integration to rely on the agents' interactions and their perceptions of the current environmental problem(s). Hence the control and coordination of the architecture are adaptable to the agents' reactions to dynamic situations. REAGERE was applied to a simulated predefined automated manufacturing domain for the purpose of controlling and coordinating the internal processes of this domain.

This paper describes an integration strategy for plug-and- play software based on functional descriptions of the software modules. The functional descriptions identify explicitly the role of each module with respect to the overall systems. They define the critical dependencies that affect the individual modules and thus affect the behavior of the system. The specified roles, dependencies and behavioral constraints are then incorporated in a group of shared objects that are distributed over a network. These objects may be interchanged with others without disrupting the system so long as the replacements meet the interface and functional requirements. In this paper, we propose a framework for modeling the behavior of plug-and-play software modules that will be used to (1) design and predict the outcome of the integration, (2) generate the interface and functional requirements of individual modules, and (3) form a dynamic foundation for applying interchangeable software modules. I describe this strategy in the context of the development of an agile manufacturing testbed. The testbed represents a collection of production cells for machining operations, supported by a network of software modules or agents for planning, fabrication, and inspection. A process definition layer holds the functional description of the software modules. A network of distributed objects interact with one another over the Internet and comprise the plug-compatible software nodes that execute these functions. This paper will explore the technical and operational ramifications of using the functional description framework to organize and coordinate the distributed object modules.

This paper describes an innovative alternative approach to developing manufacturing execution systems (MES) targeted toward overcoming major deficiencies in the current generation of these systems--which include the use of proprietary models, severe limitations on configurability, and monolithic design. The goal this new approach is to enable the adaptable factory, capable of supporting true plug-and-play interoperation, dynamic integration of new components, and dynamic adaptability to changing factory models. At the heart of this new vision of an adaptable factory lies the novel concept of model-driven components. Each model-driven component provides a general-purpose solution to a category of problems in a similar functional domain. A novel-driven component is specialized to a particular use by configuring it with an appropriate model. Model-driven components enable the behavior of MES components to be 'softcoded' in the form of a model, rather than hardcoded in a 3GL. User/analyst will be able to manipulate models directly through a variety of tools.

Currently, customized point-to-point integration is no longer acceptable because of the expensive cycle time needed to implement them. Over the past two and a half years IBM and the University of North Carolina have been working to supply the demand for a plug-and-play interoperability methodology among enterprise application. This methodology we called FAIME, a framework for application interoperability for manufacturing enterprise systems. FAIME was designed to help analyst overcome obstacles while integrating enterprise processes using the integration tools suite created using this methodology. FAIME has been successfully prototype within the area of enterprise planning systems and manufacturing execution systems. This document covers this methodology and the integration tools created so we could prototype this methodology against enterprise applications.

In todays global economy, manufacturing industries require to connect disparate applications seamlessly. They require not only to exchange data and transactions, but present a single business process image to their employees in the office, headquarters, and on the plant floor. Also, it is imperative that small and medium size manufacturing companies deploy manufacturing execution systems applications in conjunction with modern enterprise resource programs for cycle time reduction and better quality. This paper presents the experiences and reflections on a project that created a tool set to assist the above be accomplished not only in a shorter cycle time, with a better predictable quality, and with an object oriented framework, but also a tool set that allows the manufacturer to still use legacy applications. This framework has the capability of plug-and- play so that future migrations and re-engineering of processes are more productive.

The semiconductor industry, one the world's most fiercely competitive industries, is driven by increasingly complex process technologies and global competition to improve cycle time, quality, and process flexibility. Due to the complexity of these problems, current process control techniques are generally nonautomated, time-consuming, reactive, nonadaptive, and focused on individual fabrication tools and processes. As the semiconductor industry moves into higher density processes, radical new approaches are required. To address the need for advanced factory-level process control in this environment, Honeywell, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and SEMATECH formed the Advanced Process Control Framework Initiative (APCFI) joint research project. The project defines and demonstrates an Advanced Process Control (APC) approach based on SEMATECH's Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Framework. Its scope includes the coordination of Manufacturing Execution Systems, process control tools, and wafer fabrication equipment to provide necessary process control capabilities. Moreover, it takes advantage of the CIM Framework to integrate and coordinate applications from other suppliers that provide services necessary for the overall system to function. This presentation discusses the key concept of model-based process control that differentiates the APC Framework. This major improvement over current methods enables new systematic process control by linking the knowledge of key process settings to desired product characteristics that reside in models created with commercial model development tools The unique framework-based approach facilitates integration of commercial tools and reuse of their data by tying them together in an object-based structure. The presentation also explores the perspective of each organization's involvement in the APCFI project. Each has complementary goals and expertise to contribute; Honeywell represents the supplier viewpoint, AMD represents the user with 'real customer requirements', and SEMATECH provides a consensus-building organization that widely disseminates technology to suppliers and users in the semiconductor industry that face similar equipment and factory control systems challenges.

The SEMATECH Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Application Framework Specification describes an integrated model of manufacturing objects to facilitate the integration of manufacturing systems from multiple software providers. To support the ongoing evolution of this specification, a project was undertaken to develop a references implementation of the framework, using C++. This paper summarizes the results of that project, and describes some of the learning gathered during its development.

This paper examines the role virtual enterprises will have in supporting future business engagements and resulting technology requirements. Two representative end-user scenarios are proposed that define the requirements for 'plug-and-play' information infrastructure frameworks and architectures necessary to enable 'virtual enterprises' in US manufacturing industries. The scenarios provide a high- level 'needs analysis' for identifying key technologies, defining a reference architecture, and developing compliant reference implementations. Virtual enterprises are short- term consortia or alliances of companies formed to address fast-changing opportunities. Members of a virtual enterprise carry out their tasks as if they all worked for a single organization under 'one roof', using 'plug-and-play' information infrastructure frameworks and architectures to access and manage all information needed to support the product cycle. 'Plug-and-play' information infrastructure frameworks and architectures are required to enhance collaboration between companies corking together on different aspects of a manufacturing process. This new form of collaborative computing will decrease cycle-time and increase responsiveness to change.

The software industry and their customers have struggled for years with the need for better interoperability of pre-built software components. A great deal of work has been done on this problem, but that work has focused almost entirely on the technology (i.e., middleware) part of the problem. An entire class of software has even been created to address these issues.