<title>Manufacturing virtual enterprises through the use of the National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP)</title>

Abstract

I. AbstractManufacturingplays a central role in successfully competing in international markets. Improving a company '5 manufacturing capability and, consequently itsposture in global markets, requires that the company respond more rapidly to market opportunities. The rate at which new product ideas mature to commodity status is increasing, resulting in a growing emphasis on time-to-market as a key competitive dfferentiator. Realizing these new efficiencies in product development requires that organizations interconnect, software systems interoperate, and individuals interact. These challenges are being addressed by the National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIJIP) Consortium in its work to define and develop virtual enterprise technology. This paper presents an overview ofNIIIP technology and discusses aprogram deploying NIIIP technology to establish new standardsfor integrating manufacturing applications, f ocusing on manufacturing execution systems.A recognized position ofleadership in applying inventive and innovative skills to generate new design concepts does not always translate into successful products. Failure to execute efficiently -to translate concepts into manufacturable products -often limits an organization's ability to be competitive in global economies and markets [12].Improving manufacturing requires new levels of flexibility and responsiveness in identifying and addressing emerging market opportunities; this capability is often referred to as agile manufacturing. Customer requirements, product designs, suppliers, manufacturing equipment, and trade regulations continually change and addressing and exploiting these changes directly impacts product success and market share [6].Today, the incompatibility of information processing systems and technology is one of the major inhibitors to agile manufacturing. Tracing threads ofinformation flow and flow discontinuities, throughout an enterprise will show varying degrees of agility. The past several decades have produced impressive advancements in information technologies that have, in turn, enabled advances in automating product development. However, these same information technologies that were once leading instruments of progress are now 20 SPIE Vol. 2913 • 0-8194-2315-7/97/$10.00 Downloaded From: http://proceedings.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 06/17/2016 Terms of Use: http://spiedigitallibrary.org/ss/TermsOfUse.aspx

E-DREAM: A Web-Based Platform for Virtual Agile Manufacturing

“…In the new and emerging agile manufacturing paradigm, where multiple firms cooperate under flexible virtual enterprise structures, there exists a great need for a mechanism to manage and control information flow among collaborative partners, and the incompatibility of information processing systems and technology is one of the major inhibitors to agile manufacturing. In response to this pressing need, today, in the USA, the National Industrial Information Infrastructure Protocols (NIIIP) Consortium is using virtual enterprise technology to develop a common manufacturing information infrastructure to enable data sharing and agility [15] [16].…”

Colaboração e cooperação entre sistemas produtivos dispersos de empresas virtuais.

“…De acordo com Horstmann et al (1997), a incompatibilidade entre os sistemas de processamento de informações e as tecnologias usuais de manufatura foi um dos maiores inibidores da manufatura ágil. Os avanços na tecnologia da informação permitiram avanços no desenvolvimento automatizado de produtos.…”

“…O consórcio NIIIP adotou uma arquitetura baseado em padrões industriais emergentes, existentes e de facto (HORSTMANN et al, 1997), como:…”

“…As melhorias nos processos de manufatura também requeriam novos níveis de exibilidade. A produção com estrutura tradicional, centralizada em uma empresa, não era mais compatível com as inovações exigidas pela demanda (HORSTMANN et al, 1997).…”