No abstract

The speci® cation and deployment of enterprise modelling and component-based system concepts to facilitate the distributed engineering of automotive manufacturing machines is reported in this paper. The main areas of research reported in the article cover: (a) the design and prototype development of new forms of component-based engine assembly and transfer machines, (b) life cycle engineering approaches that improve the change capability of component-based automotive machines and (c) the design and implementation of an engineering environment that enables distributed engineering teams to achieve (a) and (b).The concepts, approach and environment have been developed and are being formally assessed with reference to current practice within an ongoing engineering programme. A consortium of leading automotive companies is collaborating on the research project with the aim of producing a new range of engine products that will be used in various makes of vehicle around the globe.

The development and application of a business process modelling approach to comprehend, formalize, simulate and assess a particular domain within the automotive industry are described in this paper. Within an ongoing project carried out by Loughborough University, the design and implementation of a new generation of component-based machine control systems are being investigated. As part of this project, impacts of business and technical aspects of the new control systems on existing practices are also being examined using enterprise modelling methods and tools. The modelling has been applied to the production and assembly of a machine for a new engine project in the automotive industry.The modelling approach has been based on the CIMOSA modelling architecture and complementary simulation and analysis tools, mainly ithink TM and Excel. The lessons learned from the implementation of the modelling approach and the assessment of the component-based machine control systems are also discussed in this paper. The criteria of this assessment were considered primarily as cost and time, although other factors that ultimately impact on the business processes are also discussed.

Bearing in mind that activity requirements of manufacturing enterprises (MEs) can usefully be described as a network of dependent processes, the current paper identifies complementary properties of state-of-the-art enterprise modelling and simulation modelling techniques. It is observed that, when these techniques are used in a coherent fashion, they have potential to create semantically rich models of process networks that can be computer-executed so as to replicate and/or predict organizational behaviours. The current paper describes an outline of how a particular choice of well-proved enterprise modelling and simulation modelling techniques can be used in an integrated fashion. Also described are interim research findings when using such an integrated modelling approach in a case study furniture making company. For key segments of business processes currently deployed by the case study company, the outcome has been new qualitative and quantitative understandings about (a) alternative ways of organizing multi-product flows through a constrained (in situ) set of human and technical resources and (b) potential performance enhancements that could be achieved in process segments by purchasing, commissioning and deploying alternative systems of human and technical resources. Research groundwork is now in place to support the case study company as in the future it makes (a) medium-to-long term investment decisions about new manufacturing control strategies and the purchase of new resource systems and (b) short-to-medium term production planning and control decisions.

A multiperspective modelling method is described that was developed and used to support an international consortium of businesses concerned with realizing automobile engine production on a global scale. The modelling method provides a capability of documenting, communicating and analysing various dependent aspects of multiple threads of engineering activities. Commercially available and specially developed computer modelling tools have been deployed to operationalize the method, and thereby to facilitate the design of dependent activity¯ows, the resourcing of activitȳ ows by suitable human and technical systems and the control and management of work¯ows. The paper outlines requirements of the method, with reference to properties of engineering processes that needed to be modelled. A prime focus of attention was on engineering a new generation of component-based manufacturing lines suitable for the`mass customization' of automotive engine products in production plants around the globe. Key features of the modelling framework are described, as are the stages of modelling and the associated use of proprietary modelling tools. Also provided are examples of models generated when using the method and tools.