A database for description and handling of factory communications

In integrated manufacturing systems, quality of cooperation between men and machines, maintenance and evolutivity of command installations depend partly on quality of communications inside enterprise. Given the automation complexity of today´s factories, one needs powerful methods and tools enabling one to have a global and complete communication view at the different stages of communication life cycle. This global and common view may be obtained by using a database containing all needed information concerning communications. This paper presents a model for the description of factory communications and shows how the attributes introduced by this model may be used at various stages of the communication life cycle.