Manufacturing systems configuration management: Technology for business process reengineering

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems are the most flexible and productivity systems because they are based on standard/template sub-systems and elements. The manufacturing system configuration defines its high-level structure as a collection of interacting components. Configuration management has always played a strong role in determining the success of reconfigurable manufacturing systems: the choice of an appropriate configuration can lead to a system "product-process-resource" that satisfies its requirements and is easily modified as new requirements present themselves, while an inappropriate configuration can be disastrous. This paper considers one approach to the solution of problems in "product-process-resource" system reengineering. Copyright (C) 1998 IFAC.