A Hybrid reconfigurable computer-integrated manufacturing cell for the production of mass customised parts

Abstract

Current manufacturing environments do not possess the flexibility required for mass producing custom parts. A solution - forming a hybrid manufacturing system that encapsulates computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) cells with reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) techniques - is proposed to facilitate the production of mass customised parts. The reconfigurable CIM hybrid cell possessed manufacturing conditions such as key RMS characteristics and CIM capabilities, controlled simultaneously by its software and hardware. Through intelligent agent-based architecture, it executed various operations, ranging from intelligent production scheduling and mechanisation of hardware to synchronisation of the cell components.