Evolvable production systems

Sustainability, given as a goal for future industry, is not only an issue for production engineering. Economy and ecology are an actual concern of governments and individuals worldwide. An effort must be carried on in order to reduce energy and resource consumption, deal with the possibility of climate changes and, at the same time, keep competitive in a world ruled by economic demands. In accordance with these demands, the evolvable production systems (EPS) has aimed at developing such technological solutions and support mechanisms. The essence of evolvable production systems resides in building a system with several independent process-oriented modules that possess the ability to dynamically adapt to the changing conditions of operation. Evolvability aims to attain highly adaptable control and mechanical systems enhancing re-usability and interoperability of modules, extending their life cycle and enabling short deployment times at shop floor level. Customisation and the shorter life time of products demand a continuous adaptation of the manufacturing systems and consequently enterprises must change systems development from reaction to short-term events to long term strategic development. Enterprises can follow this strategy by re-thinking their organisational levels and structure, aligning systems development re-engineering process (adopting EPS approach) with Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) in order to enhance manufacturing agility from management to shop floor level. This paper will present evolvable production systems advantages in order to achieve such results towards more ecological and economically suitable production systems.