Manufacturing Systems Integration
Information Technology Metrology for Manufacturing
Manufacturing Enterprise Integration
Manufacturing Simulation and Visualization
Integrated Nano-to-Millimeter Manufacturing
Manufacturing Systems Integration
Division Contact: Steven Ray
Information Technology Metrology for Manufacturing
Modern information-based manufacturing and engineering systems are composed of various components that share data. These components generally are software applications that address certain functions, such as design, analysis, manufacturing, control, product data management, and business processes. For any given functional requirement, several commercial software solutions may exist. Individual applications are likely to differ in their ability to share and exchange data with other components in an extended enterprise. Users must weigh an application's features and function with its capability to share and exchange accurate data.
To share data, components within a system must adhere to a common interface specification or standard. If the specification is well constructed and validated, interoperability can be achieved with a minimum of expense and late-stage rework. In addition to interoperability within and among manufacturing systems, the dependability of manufacturing information also is key to the performance value of information technology.
NIST research focuses on test methods, testability, and quantified references for manufacturing standards. This work will provide industry with the resources it needs to develop quality standards and to measure and evaluate implementations. Researchers within NIST are working to identify the elements common to individual measurement issues, to synthesize these common elements into the principles underlying rigorous testing approaches, and to codify these principles into a set of formal methods that can be applied over a wide spectrum of manufacturing problem domains. As part of the program, the researchers are identifying types of software testing relevant to systems integration, developing a lexicon of testing terminologies, investigating the methodologies and metrics relevant to systems integration testing and characterizing software behavior, and developing best-in-class approaches. The goal is to establish a formal basis for the testing and analysis of standards-based software implementations, provide reference data for measuring software performance and accuracy, and define metrics for software measurement.
Contact: Simon Frechette
Manufacturing
Enterprise Integration
The market for enterprise software applications continues to expand. Integration costs are estimated to be two to five times greater than expenditures for software. Custom implementation of proprietary, de facto, or standard interface specifications is the main reason for high integration costs. The Manufacturing Enterprise Integration program is building a foundation for new measurements and standards that will automate the integration of many manufacturing software applications. Research spans four major areas:
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ontologies for formally modeling semantics of shared manufacturing information; |
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languages for self-description of software applications, business processes, and negotiation of meaning; |
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measurement systems for comparing semantic content of information elements; and |
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distributed agents to compute metrics and manage the negotiations. |
There are many valid views of enterprise software applications, the processes they implement, and the information they share. They include the functional view, the information-flow view, the organizational view, and the business process view, to name a few. These views are supported by a number of formal modeling languages that describe the world according to that view. Each language has a framework that includes the syntax and semantics needed to use the language correctly and fruitfully. While each framework is designed to ease the modeling of that particular view, it limits the application of the language to that view only. Our first research objective is a new language to identify and model the capabilities and interface requirements of software applications and business processes, and to capture all relevant viewpoints and yet still maintain an internal coherence.
Our second research
objective is a measurement system for comparing the semantic content of
two informational quantities. We will propose a mathematical theory that
can serve as the foundation for that system, use that theory to define
an equivalence metric, develop some prototype tools for computing that
metric, and demonstrate these tools using manufacturing-enterprise-based
ontologies.
Another of our research objectives is an ontology-based representational
approach for shared manufacturing information. An ontology is a formal
description of the entities within a given domain, the properties they
possess, the relationships they stand in, the constraints they are subject
to, and the patterns of behavior they exhibit. It provides a common terminology
that helps to capture important distinctions among concepts in different
domains, which aids in the translation process.
By explicitly publishing each application's semantic model, putting in place a semantic equivalence measurement system, and providing an integration-negotiation language executed by software agents, this program will enable automatic, on-demand information exchange among many manufacturing software systems.
Contact: Albert Jones
Manufacturing
Simulation and Visualization
Simulation technology holds tremendous promise for reducing costs, improving quality, and shortening the time-to-market for manufactured goods. Unfortunately, this technology still remains largely underutilized by industry today. Many independent studies and manufacturing technology experts recognize the potentially great importance of manufacturing simulation and visualization technology to industry. Yet, technical and economic barriers hinder its use. The development of new simulation interface standards could help increase the deployment of simulation technology. Interface standards would improve the accessibility of this technology by helping to reduce the expenses associated with acquisition and deployment, minimize model development time and costs, and provide new types of simulation functionality that are not available today.
The development and maintenance of simulation models of manufacturing systems and resources can be very costly. For example, a detailed simulation model of a single machine tool may take an engineer four to six weeks to create, and customized models are required for each type of machine tool. How can the cost of the lengthy simulation development process be reduced? The solution would appear to be to simplify the model development process through modularization and the creation of re-usable simulation-model code and data. Our proposed solution includes the specification of:
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simulation study templates for addressing classes of simulation problems; |
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building block modules of manufacturing system components to be used in the templates; |
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interfaces for interconnecting simulation component modules together; and |
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libraries of simulation reference data sets. |
Development of neutral,
vendor-independent data formats for storing simulation models would greatly
improve the accessibility and utility of simulation technology to U.S.
industry by enabling sharing and re-use of models. Individual companies,
simulation vendors, equipment and resource manufacturers, consultants,
and service providers could use these standard formats to develop models
that could be imported into different commercial simulation products.
Neutral formats would help enlarge the market for simulation models and
make their development a viable business enterprise, attracting more companies
to refine the technology and to compete for customers.
A major focus for this program is the identification and specification
of data interfaces for various manufacturing simulation applications.
This program will:
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identify critical manufacturing process and system simulation domains and associated types of simulation software applications; |
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analyze current and future trends for simulation and testing technology; |
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establish specification and testing methods, models, and metrics for validating simulation systems interfaces; |
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identify tools and models to be used in the specification development, prototyping, and testing processes; |
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maintain a testbed containing simulation applications, prototype integration, testing tools, and test cases; |
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specify and develop architectures, data models, and interface specifications for integrating simulation applications, component modules, and reference libraries; |
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conduct experimental tests, industry demonstrations, and reviews to substantiate the validation and testing process itself; and |
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promote specifications as candidate standards within the national and international standards community. |
Contact: Charles
McLean
Integrated
Nano-to-Millimeter Manufacturing
Micro-electro-mechanical system (MEMS) devices integrate physical, chemical, and even biological processes in micro- and millimeter-scale technology packages. MEMS devices now are used in many sectors: information technology, medicine and health, aerospace, environment, and energy to name a few. On the horizon are manufacturing technologies that will support massively parallel manufacture or self-assembly of nano-electro-mechanical systems, or NEMS. These custom-designed products are characterized by functionally critical, nanometer-scale features.
This program will support U.S. industry in moving nanomanufacturing technologies into production within this decade by concurrently developing the scientific and engineering foundations necessary to support measurements and standards required to achieve effective and validated nanoscale product and process performance. This will be accomplished through work in three areas:
Atomic scale measurement, manipulation, and manufacturing—We will develop and assemble technologies required to fabricate standards that have atomically precise, but pre-determined positions and atomic structure. This will include work directed at solving artifact integrity, precision placement, dimensional metrology, and manufacturing issues.
Molecular and microscale measurement, manipulation, and manufacturing—We plan to identify and address the fundamental measurement and standards issues related to manipulation and assembly of micro/nanoscale devices using optical methods. This will entail building the manipulation technology and using it to understand the measurement issues that arise when assembling devices at the micro/nanoscale level.
Advanced MEMS and NEMS fabrication—We will develop a fast turn-around, in-house capability to fabricate small lots of prototype MEMS load cells and derivative components for use in small force calibration and pressure sensing. We also will explore alternative methods to provide traceable force artifact.
Contact: Kevin Lyons
Design of complex engineering systems is becoming increasingly collaborative, involving designers or design teams who are organizationally, geographically, and temporally distributed. Rarely can a single designer or design team manage the complete product development effort. Hence, companies are increasingly staffing only their core competencies in-house and depending on other firms to provide the complementary design knowledge and design effort needed for a complete product. Designers are no longer merely exchanging geometric data, but more general knowledge about design and the product development process, including specifications, design rules, constraints, and rationale. Furthermore, this exchange of knowledge often crosses corporate boundaries. So, design is becoming increasingly knowledge-intensive and collaborative, and the need for computational frameworks to support product engineering in industry is becoming more critical.
Our product engineering program focuses on the key issues emerging from a collaborative product development paradigm. Research and development efforts within this program range from specification and standards development to technology development and prototype implementation. Results will help to build the foundation that will support the creation of next-generation product development tools needed to increase the efficiency, effectiveness, capability, and productivity of the U.S. manufacturing sector in the 21st century.
Contact: Ram D. Sriram
Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA)
Manufacturing supply chains depend on computer software systems in every stage of the production process, from product-oriented research and development through product engineering, production forecasting, manufacturing, delivery, and maintenance. As a result, the information needed to operate nearly all kinds of manufacturing businesses exists in digital form. The ability of these software systems to interoperate with one another pays enormous dividends in boosting the efficiency, speed, and responsiveness of the manufacturing supply chain. Far too often, however, the lack of effective interfaces between the myriad software systems used throughout the supply chain hinders productivity.
The Systems Integration for Manufacturing Applications (SIMA) program seeks to provide U.S. manufacturers with capabilities enabling contextually meaningful data to be shared among business activities so that reliable information is accessible when and where it is needed. SIMA supports technical projects throughout all of the NIST's laboratories. These NIST projects contribute to development and testing of standards, facilitating the exchange of technical data across all levels of the supply chain in multiple industry domains. Results are helping to realize seamless interchange of technical information among U.S. manufacturers.
Contact: Simon
Frechette
Date
created:December
17, 2001
Last modified:
Aug. 07, 2007
Contact: inquiries@nist.gov