A new model for synchronous production between clients and subcontractors
Résumé
Today the development of collaborative work practices led to some evolutions of organizations, design process as well as the analysis of the roles of those process actors. The deployment of multi-view representations of the product during its life cycle also generates important needs for software tools, methods, and concepts in order to increase its effectiveness. Within this context firstly, a new product model for production is presented, based on the multi-view model. It consists of two parts. The first "graphic" part represents the structural description of the product. The second one "manufacturing activities and structural data" represents the manufacturing operations of the product. Secondly, a new approach to the control of manufacturing systems, which allows increased reactivity and flexibility is presented. This approach is based on a social approach with a totally decentralized architecture. The manufacturing system is made up of a set of autonomous and intelligent agents as in a society. The original contribution of this paper is to consider the product as an actor who takes a part in the decisions. The products are likened to customers and the resources to service providers. The model is inserted into a validation platform developed by the partners participating in the PSEDOS (Synchronous Production Between Clients and Subcontractors) project. This platform integrates all the elements necessary to drive the production, interacting with the computerised data exchanges between order-givers and subcontractors. It concerns a car industry company specialised in screw cutting and subcontracting, suppliers of car manufacturers.