Towards a configurable manufacturing system model

This paper describes an approach to incorporate configuration capabilities as an inherent feature in the model of a manufacturing system. Within the automotive industry most manufacturing facilities produce several products where each product is available in many different variants. In order to be able to model the full capability of such a manufacturing facility the authors advocate the importance of dealing with variability of products and manufacturing processes in the manufacturing system model. The approach to define a model of a manufacturing system that is proposed in this paper will require introduction of some new model concepts. We will use and extend traditionally well-recognized manufacturing model concepts in this framework and by doing so we provide new requirements and perspective on these entities. The paper will outline how the proposed manufacturing system model cat? be viewed as a sub-model in context of an Integrated Product Model. The paper also elaborates the configurable component concept and proposes this to become a generic mechanism for how to introduce configuration capabilities in the sub-models of the integrated product model.