Object-oriented manufacturing application framework

The varied nature of manufacturing systems, which is wide, dynamic and complex, are obstacles in manufacturing software systems development. The paper proposes a solution to solve these problems by developing a manufacturing application framework with a set of integrated reusable components, which can be adapted to suit specific manufacturing applications. Two subdomains of the manufacturing domain, production management (PM) and statistical quality control (SQC), are the main focuses in the paper. A generic model of the manufacturing domain is proposed based on the structure and behavior of each of the PM and SQC, from which the design infrastructure of the application framework is derived, based on the concept of design patterns. The details of the application framework development by integrating object oriented technology and component based development to achieve large-scale software reuse in manufacturing application development projects are also discussed