 | Manufacturing Technology a Industrial Systems Task Force |  |
| | Manufacturing Technology a Industrial Systems Task Force | |
The MES/MC working group is concerned with the definition of interfaces to enable flexible integration and interoperation of computerized systems which support manufacturing production (as contrasted with the focus of other ManTIS working groups on design, engineering and planning). We expect these interfaces to be applicable to a wide range of industries which perform discrete, batch and/or continuous processing. The work of this group has been divided into two tracks which roughly correspond to two product categories: Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and Machine Control (MC) systems.
| Positions not occupied at time of dissolution. This group was extremely productive under the leadership of Evan Wallace of NIST and Jeanette Breton of Shell Services, both of whom have moved on to other assignments. Their contributions are appreciated. The Working Group did not survive their departures. |
This group has defined an MES as a system which guides, initiates, responds to, and reports on plant activities as they occur from order launch to finished goods. This definition is an adaptation of the MESA International definition and includes both supporting functions like data collection, information management, and more direct production functions like job dispatching and reporting.
Machine Control systems (referred to as simply "controls" or control systems in some industries) by contrast, are concerned with direct control of manufacturing equipment and processes.
The Manufacturing Technology and Industrial Systems Task Force began drafting a new RFP in Irvine for Configuration and Update of Industrial Systems Information. This is seen as a logical follow-on to the DAIS specification. An initial objective statement is:
This RFP solicits proposals for standard interfaces providing for interaction with the configuration and recorded data within industrial systems by other applications such as Utility Management Systems, Manufacturing Execution Systems, and Enterprise Resource Planning systems. Specifically, this RFP solicits proposals for the following functionality:for data types that are generated within and gathered from an industrial system.
- Discovery of Remote System Schema and Configuration Information
- Creation and Update of Configuration Information
- Creation and Update of Recorded Information
- Event Notification for Change of Values
Craig Woods of NIIIP made a presentation on the objectives of this RFP in Irvine. Currently this is still in its early stages and the ManTIS is actively recruiting other end-user, vendor, and domain groups interested in developing the technology.
MES/MC working group membership is actively engaged in monitoring and participating with other groups with overlapping scope. These groups include:
The Utilities, Space, Transportation, and Healthcare Domain Task Forces all have the need to save data histories and retrieve or "play them back" at a later time. A session is being hosted by the Common Enterprise Models Domain Task Force (formerly the BODTF) in Paris on Wednesday, April 25 from 1-5 PM, to explore these requirements further and potentially begin drafting an RFP to cover any shared requirements that may be discovered. Envisioned interfaces for this are known by at least two different names in different subgroups: Historical Data Access from Industrial Systems (HDAIS) in the Utilities DTF and Record/ Playback Facility in the Transportation DTF. The Utilities DTF already have a second draft of an HDAIS RFP available on the server as utility/2001-04-01.
The MES/MC roadmap identifies Workflow (Wf) Resource Assignment [Note: This was a link to a technology schedule no longer active], and Workflow Process Definition [Note: This was a link to a technology schedule no longer active] (RFPs in process) as a basis for definitions of interfaces to some MES software components. Because of this, the MES/MC wg members have been participating in CEMDTF Workflow working group sessions. Because of the interdependency between these two Workflow RFPs, they now share a single schedule. Letters of Intent to submit proposals for either RFP must be received by July 16, 2000 Initial Submissions must be submitted by August 16, 2001, and Revised Submissions must be received by December 24, 2001.
Readers who are interested in process definition should keep an eye on the Action Semantics for UML RFP UML Profile for EDOC RFP technology processes being conducted in the Analysis and Design Platform Task Force. These are likely to have an impact on WPD or any other OMG process definition language developed at OMG.
The Technology Adoption has passed the Domain Technology Committee (DTC) adoption vote. The technology has been approved by the Business Committee. Board of Directors approval is pending. The submission document is mfg/00-11-03 and the errata document mfg/01-02-02. However, the convenience (non-normative) document, mfg/01-01-02, is probably the most useful reference since it includes updates specified in the errata document.
The RFP for Data Acquisition from Industrial Systems (DAIS RFP) was issued at the January '99 OMG meeting in Arlington, Va. A result of joint work with the Utilities DTF, the RFP solicited proposals for interfaces enabling access to control data which could be used by application systems such as MES, ERP or Utility Management Systems.
At the beginning of 2000 the MES/MC working group reactivated its planning for MES interface development. A new draft MES Roadmap document was developed which reflected discussions at the Mesa OMG meeting as well as past work done by the MES/MC and ERP working groups. This is now the document being used as the basis for the work of the MES/MC group. Comments on this document are always welcome and should be sent to [email protected].
Eric Gressier of Laboratoire Cedric - Cnam presented at September's Manufacturing Task Force plenary on his experiences with a QoS-enabled CORBA based Manufacturing Message Specification (MMS) prototype. Slides available.
The Manufacturing System Model Technical Committee of the Manufacturing Science and Technology Center (MSTC of Japan) presented their Manufacturing System Model (mfg/2000-09-01) at the January 2000 OMG meeting. This is an MES model which MSTC has developed and has recently translated into english. The model may lead to additional roadmap items for the ManTIS to pursue in the future.
The Working Group issued a Request for Information (RFI) December, 1997 which invited input from individuals and organizations with insight or information in the any of the following areas:
Click here to view links to the responses and associated presentation material.
A white paper outlining the group's views on CORBA-based Machine Control may be found at mfg/98-03-10.
Last updated on: 11/09/2007