Virtual manufacturing system - A test-bed of engineering activities

Virtual manufacturing system is an integrated computer based model which represents the physical and logical schema and the behavior of real manufacturing systems. In this paper, a prototype of a Virtual Manufacturing system is developed using an expert system shell and a database management system on Internet, and various manufacturing strategies are examined by it. Workflow modeling of a Virtual Manufacturing system is performed, and a manufacturing/product database is constructed. Also, Virtual factory and its functions for engineering activities including order processing, design, planning, scheduling, control and verification are implemented and integrated. Finally, real time scheduling using the multi-pass strategy, on-line process planning and production control system are applied. The experiences of this integration are satisfactory to propose the Virtual Manufacturing system as a good test-bed for diverse engineering activities in manufacturing.