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E-manufacturing-fundamentals, requirements and expected impacts

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 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey

e-MANUFACTURING- FUNDAMENTALS, REQUIREMENTS AND

EXPECTED IMPACTS
Muammer Koç and Jay Lee
NSF I/UCRC Center for Intelligent Maintenance Systems (IMS), The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee,
Milwaukee, WI 53211, USA
koc@uwm.edu

ABSTRACT Planning (ERP), and Manufacturing Execution

This paper outlines an e-manufacturing system
architecture giving details of its required features and
elements after summarizing the recent trends and
needs in the business and manufacturing industry in
particular. e-Manufacturing is a recent concept being
developed aimed at complete integration of all the
elements of a business- including suppliers, customer
service network, manufacturing enterprise and plant
floor assets with connectivity and intelligence
brought by the internet, web-enabling, tether-free
technologies and computational tools to meet the
demands of e-business/e-commerce practices that
gained great acceptance and momentum over the last
decade. e-Manufacturing offers the manufacturers a
position where they can easily re-configure the
manufacturing capability with agility to respond
quickly for changing demands and opportunities
in the market by possessing predictive intelligence on
the plant floor.
KEY WORDS
Systems (MES). However, e-business without a
profound manufacturing base lacks delivering what
customers are asking. Integration of the front
elements the e-Business has exerted an increaing
pressure on the manufacturing industry.
Manufacturers are now under a tremendous pressure
to improve their responsiveness and efficiency in
terms of product development, operations, resource
utilization with a transparent visibility of production
and quality control. Lead times must be cut short to
their extreme extend to meet need the changing
demands of customers in different regions of the
world. Products are required to be make-to-order
with no or minimum inventory, requiring (a) an
efficient information flow between customers and
manufacturing (i.e. plant floor and suppliers), (b) a
tight control between customers and manufacturing
and (c) near-zero downtime of the plant floor assets
as depicted in Figure 2.
Global market / economy
Competition

Business
e-Manufacturing, e-maintenance, predictive Automation Predictive Intelligence
(e-Business) • Product Realization
maintenance, e-business • M fg. Operations ??
Velocity • Delivery
• Services

1. INTRODUCTION Outsourcing Products/

Machines ?
Mfg.
Processes

In today’s continuously changing and Government / Regional Regulations

Systems

challenging global market, customized products, fast Loss of Skills / Experience

Aging Workforce
delivery, on-time service, reliability and transparent Challenges
• Short Decision-Making Time & Cannot Afford Downtime
processes are in an increasing demand in addition to • High Demands in Responsive Supply-Chain
• Sell Life-Cycle Reliability and Support as Part of Product

the given near-zero defect quality and continuous Figure 1. Transformation of industry and challenges
cost reduction requirements, Figure 1. Customers, introduced with this transformation
empowered with the internet, select the products not
only based on their brands and sales cost, but also S2
S1
Suppliers
their reliability, efficiency and after-market service Sn
Distribution

options. Consequently, the selection of products is

Marketing

C1
Design & Inventory /
Manufacturing Customers C n
Development Stocks
more and more based on their overall life cycle C2

value. Customer’s access to more vendors and their •

•
Predictive Intelligence
Seamless Integration

products through Internet unlimit their power of • Responsiveness

purchase, and allow them to ask for better products at

Distribution
Marketing

C1
a less cost with extended service options and Design &
Development
e -Manufacturing Customers C n

guaranteed life cycle performance. C2

S1
e-Business has been evolved during the past S2 Suppliers
Sn
decade to satisfy such needs of customers through
development and improvement of innovative Figure 2. Expected transformation of manufacturing
business enterprise systems such as e-procurement, enterprise. Changes in market conditions force
Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer manufacturing industry to be agile, responsive and
Relations Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource intelligent with predictive capabilities [after 1, P. Zipkin]
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey
A company’s ability to satisfy the customer
orders and needs primarily depends on their
capabilities for fast product realization, uninterrupted
production with defect free products and on-time
service not on their warehouse capacity, or their
quickness to accept and process the orders over the
internet. Lately many companies started outsourcing
most of their production activities to (a) focus on
marketing and servicing to achieve customer
satisfactions, and increase their profit margins, and
(b) overcome the demands of changing market and
customers by leveraging the capacity and capabilities
of partners and suppliers. However, it has been seen
that this was not an ultimate solution as
manufacturers were then dependent on the
capabilities and responsiveness of their suppliers,
Figures 1 and 2. In any case that these suppliers can
not achieve the required responsiveness, customer
satisfaction would be so are the future opportunities
of that business
Hence, suppliers’ manufacturing
responsiveness and capabilities need to be
understood, improved and integrated fully to provide
ultimate market solutions and customer satisfaction.
Since there are broken chains between existing
enterprise systems such as ERP, MES, and SCM and
plant floor assets, real-time production control
capabilities cannot be achieved. For instance,
Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) reside
between plant floor operations and ERP, and are
supposed to perform functions such as allocation and
scheduling of resources and production and
management of quality, maintenance, process and
labor. However, today’s MES still perform on a
reactive mode as information flow from the plant
floor is handled by the operators and engineers in an
unautomated fashion. In order to meet the demands
of the new economy and global changes,
manufacturers need a comprehensive solution that:
(a) connects customers to the plant floor in real-time,
and provides visibility, (b) empowers plant floor
operators perform proactive measures promptly
based on customer orders, (c) provides reliability,
dependability and a common platform for all
operations, plants, and (d) offers predictability of
variations and changes on the assets (i.e., equipment,
devices, people, processes) through use of
computational tools and widely available internet
networking technologies in a secure way as presented
in Figure 3.
2. E-MANUFACTURING- RATIONALE
AND DEFINITION
Change the information on your document
to contain e-Manufacturing is a system that enables
the manufacturing operations highly compatible with
the remaining elements of the business through the
use of internet, tether-free technology (i.e. wireless,
web, etc.) and predictive technologies to successfully
perform the functional objectives of an enterprise, i.e.
transformation, prediction, optimization, and
synchronization.
e-Manufacturing is a recent concept being
developed aimed at complete integration of all the
elements of a business- including suppliers, customer
service network, manufacturing enterprise and plant
floor assets with connectivity and intelligence
brought by the internet, web-enabling, tether-free
technologies and computational tools to meet the
demands of e-business/e-commerce practices that
gained great acceptance and momentum over the last
decade, Figure 3. e-Manufacturing includes the
ability to monitor the plant floor assets, predict the
variation of product quality and performance loss of
any equipment for dynamic rescheduling of
production and maintenance operations, and
synchronize with related business services to achieve
a seamless integration between manufacturing and
higher level enterprise systems. e-Manufacturing
offers the manufacturers a position where they can
easily re-configure the manufacturing capability with
agility to respond quickly for changing demands and
opportunities in the market by possessing predictive
intelligence on the plant floor. e-Manufacturing
solutions would execute customer orders on the plant
floor and across the supply chain, bringing
unprecedented levels of speed, flexibility and
visibility to the production process reducing
inventory, excess capacity and uncertainty. It also
provides efficient configurable information
exchanges among manufacturing units, customer
relationship management (CRM) systems and supply
chain management (SCM) systems, Figure 3.
•
•
Green processes & products
Traceability
1 •
•
Scalability
Responsiveness 1
2 Suppliers
• M RO
• Standardization
Customers 2
• M fg partners &
3
• Raw material P lant 1 P lant 2 P lant n Distributors
• C omponent • Distributors 3
• Design,
• R&D
SCM e-Manufacturing CRM • E nd C ustomers
• E xchanges
n • etc
n
ERP- Enterprise Resource Planning
Sales & Distr., Work orders, Materials, Prod. Plan
• E nv ironmental
requirements
Work Flow, Plants Maintena nce, Quality, Human Reso urces;
Order Status, WIP Status, Quality Data, Customer Orders
• International, regional
and gov ernmental MES- Manufacturing Execution Systems
Work Instructions, Control Parameters, Prod. Scheduli ng,
•
regulations
Labor reg ulations
Efficiency, Maintenance; Resource Status, WIP,
Workforce needs
•
• etc
Control Systems- PLCs, Controllers, etc.
Equi pment, devices, people, processes, Sensors, I/O;
Status and performance of devices, Operation & Work status,
Process values,
Figure 3: e-Manufacturing at the intersection of three
dimensional needs and expectations. Integration of e-
Manufacturing into e-Business systems to meet the
increasing demands through tightly coupled SCM, ERP
and CRM systems as well as environmental and labor
regulations and awareness.
While marketing and supply chain
integration efforts of a business utilize the latest web
enabled technologies in a successful manner, the
backbone of the business- manufacturing- undergoes
an increasing pressure to meet the demands using
their conventional techniques and skills. Accepting
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey

the orders through the internet is the easy part of the
business, fulfilling the requirements of these orders is
the tough part. The velocity injected into the
business through e-commerce and Internet, leaves
very little room in manufacturing for downtime,
production loss, and delay in realizing newer
products. In order to leverage the web enabled
marketing side of the business, manufacturers have to
find new methods and techniques to respond to this
demand imposed by the e-Business improving the
following approaches and concepts: (a) build-to-
order, (b) short lead time, (c) flexible and visible
production process, and (d) smart asset management.
Customers’ have varying needs requiring
customized solutions and products. Therefore,
satisfying their needs demands fast response in terms
of design, production and delivery. The system also
has to be flexible to adapt significant changes in the
design, materials, process, etc. Manufacturers have
to also provide visibility to their customers so that
they follow the status of their order through supply,
production and delivery stages. Not only customers
semiconductor industry (i.e. chip making companies
and foundry), the power generation industry (i.e.
power utilities companies), the transportation
industry (i.e. trucking, airlines), the medical
equipment industry, and the building system industry
(i.e. elevators, HVACs), have been strategically
benchmarking smart predictive maintenance and
customer service practices globally to maintain their
manufacturing productivity and customer’s intimacy
for a better competitive position. For example, the
latest Pratt & Whitney jet engines have an array of
sensors and on-board diagnostics that are capable of
generating information with sufficient detail to allow
the ground systems to forecast repair needs months in
advance. This helps the airlines schedule engine
removals so that the cost of downtime is balanced
against the cost of overhaul. The on-board systems,
in concert with the ground based analysis capabilities,
also reduce costly unscheduled events such as delays,
cancellations, diversion and in-flight shutdowns.
1980 1990 2000
2010

but also plant and maintenance managers, IT and Products

Product
financial officers, etc. of a company would be Product
Intelligent
Mechatronics
That
That Learn,
Grow, Reconfigure,
Thinks and Links
interested in such a visibility as this would help them Focus (data & control
intelligence)
(information &
and Sustain
(knowledge &
Computer intelligence)
to organize and plan for order changes, resource e - Intelligence)

status, equipment failures, scheduling of Factory Enterprise

E-Mfg &
Business Automation
maintenance, etc. There should be a continuous and Manufacturing
Focus
Automation
(flexibility)
Integration
(agility) (velocity )
seamless flow of information in e-Manufacturing.
Real-time access of information at various and Near-Zero-Downtime
Six-Sigma Customer Solutions
remote locations would increase the overall Quality
SPC & TQM
for Manufacturing For
Business Process and Total Asset Optimization
efficiency, Figure 3. Every member of chain- Focus Process
(factory) (enterprise) (customers)

suppliers, distributors, logistic and technology

providers, manufacturers at all levels- should possess
the capability, willingness and technology to
implement the elements of e-Manufacturing. If any
member in the chain lacks this requirement, the
whole chain or the system will not function as
desired [2, 3].
Figure 4 illustrates the evolution of product
and manufacturing innovation and the future trend
from 1980s to today and future. Nowadays product
focus has been changed from information and
computer intelligence to knowledge and e-
intelligence as a need to fulfill the fickle customer
demands. Manufacturing focus is shifting from
factory automation to business automation to trigger
the product focus. Quality focus is addressing e-
service for customer solutions and total asset
optimization where as in the past it was mentioned as
TQM and six sigma for business process as the
manufacturing is not beyond the factory floor.
Therefore, the changes of the business strategies are
needed to stay with the competitive business, which
comes from growing trend of customers demands.
For example, General Electric Company’s
strategic transformation [4] toward an industry leader
in six-sigma service in 1995 has inspired many
companies to follow. Many industries, including the
aerospace industry (i.e. jet engine, aircraft), the
Figure 4: Evolution of product design, manufacturing, and
quality expectations
Today’s automotive industry is also looking
for ways to embrace telematics for getting automatic
roadside assistant and route guidance into car. GM
has set a goal for its OnStar telematics service of one
million subscribers by the end of 2000. By 2005,
GM plans to have all of its cars equipped with the
hardware and software components for OnStar with
enhanced features [5]. For the semiconductor
manufacturing industry, one of the major thrusts is e-
diagnostics. e-Diagnostics is the ability to remotely
service equipment and provide application support
such as correcting chip-manufacturing errors via the
internet. Chip manufacturers use remote diagnostics
software instead of having an engineer come out to a
site to adjust chip-making equipment. As chips get
smaller, production errors rise. Moving to smaller
chips can result in 10 times as many errors, even for
leaders such as Intel Corp. and IBM Corp. These
errors can force a chip company to shut a production
line, causing it to lose thousands of dollars. This is
one of the biggest problems chipmakers face today.
KLA-Tencor foresees that the semiconductor
industry will move toward e-diagnostics technologies
for integrated diagnostics monitoring. These
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey

enabling technologies will impact the entire industry, operating as a virtual enterprise as an effective part of
not just semiconductor business [6]. Further an extended supply chain.
advancements of these smart industrial applications
will be dependent upon continuous innovation and 2 1
1 2 3
the advancement of next-generation web-enabled 3
Suppliers
P lant 1 Plant 2 P lant n
CRM
Cus tomers & n
SCM Distributors
intelligent systems. n e-Manufacturing

Manual
3. E-MANUFACTURING Information
Autom ated
Info Flow
Flow
ARCHITECTURE AND FUNCTIONS Work Order Work Order
Orders Status / Data Order Status / Data
Currently, Manufacturing Execution
Systems (MES) provide a higher-level view of ?

Gaps & Sol utions

! IMS Manufacturing Exe cution
production but these systems were often inflexible to Hardcopies
Manual ! C omputation
Data ! P rediction
operate to be truly effective. The enterprise resource Manual
Coordination Entry ?
Controls
! O ptimization
planning (ERP) systems have become the financial ! Sy nchronization

backbone of many corporations. However, existing ?

structure of the ERP and MES cannot include the Plant Floor Plant Floor:
S mart, Pr oactive & Networked Devices
Legacy Devices & Systems, Static & Unused Data
dynamics of the factory floor such as maintenance or E mpowered operat ors

unpredictable downtime, variation and reliability of
suppliers and customers as illustrated in Figure 5.
Currently, a multitude of MES and ERP suppliers are
working with manufacturers in an effort to integrate
information throughout various parts of the
enterprise. However, the crucial link between MES
and ERP systems is hindered by the lack of
integration between these systems and the
information coming from and flowing to control
systems on the plant floor.
It is necessary to identify the functional
elements of e-Manufacturing to exchange transparent
and automated information between shop floor and
enterprise. The major functions and objectives of e-
Manufacturing are (a) transparent, seamless and
automated information exchange process that can be
also coined as O.H.I.O (only handle information
once), (b) total asset management that aims
improving the utilization of plant floor assets using a
holistic approach combining the tools of predictive
maintenance techniques, (c) e-supply chain network
that links entire SCM operation and asset
optimization, and (d) sophisticated customer service
system that serves customers utilizing the latest
predictive intelligence methods and tether-free
technologies, Figure 5.
The real-time production information should
be made available to the entire organization,
including managers at the top floors and machine
operators at the plant floor in order to successfully
apply proactive maintenance to achieve near zero
downtime of the systems. Then, e-Manufacturing
can target to optimize supply chain execution, agile
and adaptive customer service, improve asset
utilization, and implement dynamic preventive
maintenance. Rockwell Automation [7] published a
white paper stating four competencies (design,
operate, maintain and synchronize) that are required
for any manufacturer to be a world class
manufacturing company. e-Manufacturing means
giving the company agility to react quickly to
changes in the market, technology and customers by
Figure 5: Today’s business system in which supply chain
and customer relations are tightly coupled with the use of
internet and information technology whereas
manufacturing is still the weakest and broken link in the
chain. On the other hand, in the e-manufacturing
environment, manufacturing is no longer the broken chain
with the real-time monitoring, predictive intelligence ,
smart devices and reconfigurable assets [after 7].
Today, even with the best implemented lean
manufacturing practices, many companies still face
the following problems, which are all interrelated to
each other: 1) Defect parts, 2) High downtime, 3)
High energy utilization and cost, 4) Long changeover
and ramp up time, 5) Long lead time for new product
realization (long part and process design, and
validation periods), 6) Slow decision making (high
inventory, slow scheduling, etc.).
The proposed e-manufacturing architecture
in this study addresses the above issues including
bringing about innovations on smart assessment
methodologies for degradation prediction and
prevention as well as to develop advanced
maintenance and service technologies to enable
manufacturers and customers to sustain their assets
with near zero-downtime conditions. Briefly, the
main requirements of the e-Manufacturing can be
listed as follows:
1) Plant-floor, production processes, flow of material,
etc. within the manufacturing system should be
modeled thoroughly. The model should contain
the entire flow of information for processes,
products, equipment, people, and other assets in all
plants involved including suppliers.
2) Information should be more than raw data. It
should be converted into a useful, understandable,
and intelligent form. Via such information mode,
complete visibility can be achieved. Status of
equipments, orders, resources, products, changes in
the processes across various plants in the enterprise
can be monitored and provided using such
intelligent information management system.
3) There should not be any black holes in the real
time flow of information throughout the system
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
including outsourcing suppliers, customers, plant
management, machine operators and machine
itself.
4) e-Manufacturing should include intelligent
maintenance and performance assessment systems
to provide reliability, dependability and minimum
downtime with equipment running smoothly at
their highest performance.
5) The entire system should be flexible enough to
change with the varying market and demand
conditions in a short lead-time.
6) Standard, flexible and enterprise-wide platforms
and protocols should be used to offer such
flexibility. Management of the assets both locally
and remotely should be provided.
Real Factory
ERP (2) Transformation
System
Dyn amic Database
Production User interface
Plan
(Weekl y
Daily, ..)
Root
Cause
Historical Simulation
Failure / Repair
Distribution
Model
Library
Virtual Factory
Maintenance
Planni ng
Manpower
Availability
DSS
Optimiz ation
Algorithm
(3) Analysis / Prediction / Optimization
D2B Platform
Figure 6: Proposed e-Manufacturing system includes
reliable informatics platform (D2B™) thats comprises (1)
data gathering, (2) transformation, (3) analysis, prediction
and optimization, and (4) synchronization using dynamic
virtual factory simulation, distributed predictive
intelligence agents integrated with tether-free
communication systems for real-time decision-making.
e-Manufacturing can offer comprehensive
solutions by addressing the following research and
development issues: 1) Development of intelligent
agents for continuous, real time, remote and
distributed monitoring and analyses of devices,
machinery and systems to provide the first and most
needed element of predictive maintenance via
offering real time information about machine’s
performance status (health condition), its capability
of producing quality parts (or completing its tasks),
etc, 2) Development of remote, distributed and web-
based quality control systems and their integration
with intelligent predictive agents described above in
order to identify quality variations and their causes in
real time, 3) Development of a dependable and
scalable information pipeline/platform for complete
transformation, optimization and synchronization of
plant floor problems, issues, and solutions with
higher level production, maintenance and transaction
scheduling systems, inventory control systems,
supply chain systems and with ERP for dynamic
scheduling of production, maintenance, human and
other resources, dynamic inventory monitoring and
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey
control, optimization of energy/power utilization,
etc., 4) Development of virtual design platform for
collaborative part, process, tooling design among
suppliers, design and process engineers and as well
as customers for fast validation and decision making.
Figure 6 illustrates the proposed e-Manufacturing
concept as outline above.
4. MAJOR ELEMENT AND REQUIREMENTS
In order to effectively implement the e-
Manufacturing platform described above in various
manufacturing environments (food processing, metal
fabrication, petro-chemical processing, paper/tissue
production, aircraft industry, etc.), the following
elements need to be accomplished and integrated:
Predictive Intelligence
Integrated w/ tether-free
• Data gathering from various machinery and
communication systems
processes. This has been already done at various
... levels. However, massive raw data is not useful
unless it is reduced and transformed into
(1) Data gathering
information and knowledge for responsive actions.
Hence, data mining tools for data reduction,
XML
(4) Synchronization
representation and prediction adopted for plant
Internet
Logistics
floor data needs to be developed
Degradation
prediction
Plan
Production
• Advanced prediction methods and tools need to be
Maintenanc e
Strateg y
Maintenance developed in order to detect degradation,
Shipment
Manpower pool Procurement performance loss or trend of failure not faults,
CRM
Inventor y
SCM breakdowns, etc. For prediction of degradation on
EAM
Re-scheduling
components/machinery, computational and
statistical tools should be developed to detect the
degradation through massive computation using
slight changes and differences in the data coming
from devices. Figure 7 illustrates a schematic of a
predictive agent based on Cerebellar Model
Articulation Controller (CMAC) technique [8, 9,
10] being improved at the Center for Intelligent
Maintenance Systems (IMS) in addition to various
other approaches as part of a Watchdog toolbox.
• For flexibility of data processing, analysis, remote
monitoring and control of devices on the plant
floor existing tether-free technologies (wireless
communication, wireless sensor, vision systems,
etc.) should be utilized. Information pipeline- An
information highway that provides reliable, secure,
scalable and compatible information
transformation between device and business
systems (Device-to-Business platform, D2B™).
Figure 7 summarizes the use of wireless
technology combined with predictive agents.
• For wider and easier implementations, new
standards need to be identified and developed.
Existing efforts to develop standards should be
leveraged via active participation and involvement
(i.e. IEEE 802.xx standard committees, MIMOSA,
etc.)
• Web-enabled decision-making portal- performs
dynamic optimization and synchronization based
on the information obtained through D2B™
pipeline, and provides knowledge for real time
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey

decision making to achieve the ultimate business prognostics for preventive maintenance. Users from
automation, Figure 6 and 7. different factories or locations can also share this
information through these web tools. This will
enable users for high-quality communications since
they all sharing the same set of data formats without
any language barriers.
Moreover, as another example, by knowing
E-Maintenance

1 the degradation of machines in the production floor,

ERP
the operation supervisor can estimate its impacts to
2 Embedded and web-enabled
Performance and
Degradation
Information
Via
Internet CRM
the materials flow and volume and synchronize it
Smart Prognostic Agent
(WATHCDOG) with the ERP systems. The revised inventory needs
5

3
and materials delivery can also be synchronized with
other business tools such as CRM system. When
cutting tools worn out on a machining center, the
4 information can be directly channeled to the tool
providers and update the tool needs for tool
performance management. In this case, the cutting
Figure 7: Various elements of e-Manufacturing: (1) data
gathering and predictive intelligence- D2B™ platform and
tool company is no long selling cutting tools, instead,
Watchdog Agent™, (2) tether-free communication selling cutting time. In addition, when the machine
technologies [7] and (5) optimization and synchronization degrades, the system can initiate a service call
tools, and their position in the architecture through the service center for prognostics. This will
change the practices from MTTR to MTBD (mean
With the further advancement of next- time between degradation) [11].
generation web-enabled tether-free infotronics agent
integrated under an e-Manufacturing system, the 5. INTELLIGENT MAINTENANCE SYSTEMS AND
massive data bottle-necks between the plant floor and E-MAINTENANCE ARCHITECTURE
business systems can be eliminated by converting the Predictive maintenance of plant floor assets
raw machine health data, product quality data and is a critical component of e-Manufacturing concept.
process capability data into information and Predictive maintenance systems, also referred as e-
knowledge for dynamic decision making. Maintenance in this document, provides
The technological advances for achieving manufacturing and operating systems with near-zero
such a highly collaborative design, manufacturing, downtime performance through use and integration
supply chain and service management environment is of (a) real time and smart monitoring, (b)
based on information-based engineering tools and a performance assessment methods, and (c) tether-free
highly reliable communication system. Distributed technologies. These systems can compare a
procedures and tools enable concurrent engineering product’s performance through globally networked
design, remote and distributed operation, monitoring monitoring systems to shift to the degradation
and control of manufacturing processes and systems. prediction and prognostics rather than fault detection
This transition is dependent upon the advancement of and diagnostics. To get maximum performance from
next-generation manufacturing practices to “e-factory plant floor assets, e-maintenance systems can be used
and e-automation ”; the use of information to make to monitor, analyze, compare, reconfigure, and
things happen collaboratively on a global basis. Such sustain the system via internet. In addition, these
a transition from today’s tightly coupled supplier- intelligent decisions can be harnessed through web-
enterprise-customer mode, which has a weak link enabled agents and connect them to e-business tools
with manufacturing, to a mode with a tightly coupled (such as customer relation management systems,
with intelligent manufacturing demands the ERP systems and e-commerce systems) to achieve
development of embedded intelligent machine smart and effective service solutions. Remote and
infotronics and dependable link between the real time assessment of machine’s performance
devices/machinery and business systems that enable requires an integration of many different
products, machinery and systems to (1) learn about technologies including sensory devices, reasoning
their status and environment, (2) predict degradation agents, wireless communication, virtual integration
of performance, (3) reconfigure itself to sustain and interface platforms. Figure 8 summarizes the
functional performance, and (4) informate business predictive maintenance (e-Maintenance) vision in e-
decisions directly from the device itself [2,3]. product development, e-manufacturing and e-service
At this level, many web-enabled goal whereas Figure 9 illustrates positioning of e-
applications can be performed. For example, we can Maintenance elements consisting of predictive
perform remote machine calibration through intelligence (Watchdog Agent™) and device-to-
telescopic Ball bar in a different location. Experts business (D2B™) platforms in a manufacturing
from machine tool manufacturers can assist users to setting.
analyze machine calibration data and perform
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey

Enhanced normal operation state, degraded state, maintenance

Six-Sig ma Design Predictive

Design for Reliability Product or

Monitoring Perfor mance state, and failure state [12]. Aging of components
System Sensors & Events
And Serviceability
In Use
• Web-enabled
monitoring,
and machinery usually progresses through a series of
Product Product
Prognostics, and
diagnostics degradation states before failure occurs. If a
Degradation
Center Redes ign Watchdog Agent™ • Innovative Customer degradation condition can be measured and detected,
Diagnostics
Relation Management
-

Self Maintenance Communications

(CRM)
&
then a proactive and corrective maintenance activity
S mart
Design
Redundancy
Active
Passive
• Tether-Free
(Bluetooth)
• Internet
• Prognostics
Agent for Data Mining can be performed before a worse degradation
• TCP/IP
• E-Business
Integration Tools
condition or failure occurs. The degraded states can
Web-enabled
- D2B™ Platform
• Asset Optimization
be defined at a gross level or a detailed level. At a
gross level, a component is described as degraded
Figure 8: Intelligent e-Maintenance System- position and whenever deterioration occurs but does not cause loss
function of degradation prediction and device-to-business of its function. Detailed degradation is associated
(D2B™) platform with a given range of characteristics of the
components, or performance of the components, such
as detailed degraded states for a car battery indicator
Machinery
and temperature indicator. The advantage of defining
more detailed degradation states is that we can
accurately predict impacts on the failure of a
component.
Tether-free
Factory Embedded Infotronics Agent
(EI A)

Embedded Prognostics
System/Plant
Level

Machine/Device
Level

1 5

2
4
Figure 9: Illustrative positioning of Watchdog Agent™
and D2B™ platform in a manufacturing setting 3
Component
Level

In order to perform an effective e-

maintenance system for smart asset management as
Virtual Machine
part of a successful e-Manufacturing practice, overall Virtual Model
Comparison
performance assessment of the entire manufacturing
facility beginning with the system/plant level and
ending at the components on machinery (top-to-
Self
bottom) should be conducted based on the existing Comparison

maintenance, quality and process data collected either

through PLCs, maintenance work sheet, CMMS, or Peer
operators to identify the critical machinery/devices Comparison

that are either the most costly in terms of

maintenance or critical to the operations such that
their downtime may cause serious consequences. Degradation
Furthermore, common failure modes, failure Asses sment of
Machinery/Product/Systems
frequency, time to fix (MTBF- mean time between
failure), cost of repair/exchange, and labor Figure 10: Overall performance of systems is assessed
requirements/difficulty. for the critical components based on the health condition of critical machinery.
and machinery should be identified. Through Performance of machinery/devices on the other hand is
categorization of machinery/devices and component assessed through the understanding of critical components.
types within various industry and applications, Degradation prediction at the lowest level ensures the total
performance assessment of the entire system can be performance assessment and understanding of the entire
methodological and straightforward for repetitive system whether it is a manufacturing plant or a building
implementations. Furthermore, through multiple system
comparison with (a) peers, (b) history and (c) virtual
models, assessment of the performance becomes very 6. DEVELOPMENT OF DEVICE INFOTRONICS-
PREDICIVE INTELLIGENCE FOR DEGRADATION
strong with a high confidence index, Figure 10. DETECTION
The operational performance of The core-enabling element of an intelligent
component/device can be divided into four states: maintenance system is the smart computational agent
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey
that can predict the degradation or performance loss
(Watchdog Agent™), not the traditional diagnostics
of failure or faults. A complete understanding and
interpretation of states of degradation is necessary to
accurately predict and prevent failure of a component
or machine once their being critical to the overall
production or operation systems is assessed through
the performance assessment methods explained in the
previous sections. A product’s performance
degradation behavior is often associated with multi-
symptom-domain information cluster, which consists
of degradation behavior of functional components in
a chain of actions. The acquisition of specific
sensory information may contain multiple behavior
information such as non-linear vibration, thermal or
materials surface degradation, and misalignment. All
of the information should be correlated for product
behavior assessment and prognostics.
Degradation prediction of a wireless communication technologies. To effectively
component/device can be accomplished through
application of various techniques such as Neural
Networks, Genetic Algorithms, Applied Statistics or
Hybrid Approaches. In this study, the development
of a predictive intelligence toolbox (Watchdog
Toolbox™) is proposed. Such a Watchdog
Toolbox™ would include many of the above
predictive techniques in a re-configurable and
modifiable fashion for a wide variety of
implementations as presented in Figure 11. In
addition to the overall performance assessment
methodologies depicted in the previous section and
Figure 10, comparison of results of the multiple
Watchdog Agents™ will add another layer of
performance assessment, and provide a profound and
high confidence prediction of degradation.
NN-based Statistical CMAC based JTF based Hybrid
approach approach approach approach approach
Watchdog Toolbox™
Figure 11: Several predictive intelligence tools (i.e.
Watchdog Agents™) for degradation detection are
developed. Each has unique features and requirements for
different applications
Whatever approach is used, alone or in
combination with others, the common steps of
degradation assessment can be generalized as
follows: (a) determination of major, frequent and
costly failure types occurring on a particular
component or machine through historical failure data
and maintenance record analysis, (b) determination
of measurable parameters and selection of additional,
if necessary, sensor/transducer type to quantify the
degradation (Vibration- accelerometer sensor,
Current- eddy current sensors, Temperature- RTDs,
Speed-encoder, Force- strain gauges, etc.) or PLC
data (command-status data), (c) development of a
degradation prediction strategy and method using one
or a combination of the above techniques, (d)
Representation of prediction results in terms of mean
time between degradation (MTBD), root causes, etc.
To realize the aforementioned tether-free embedded
Watchdog Agent™, technical breakthroughs are
needed to: (1) effectively correlate and compute
massive and multi-sensor data from various sensors
to predict the degradation and health condition using
peer groups and virtual machine models, (2) integrate
this dispersed information in a networked
environment, (3) synchronize with business systems
at an enterprise level utilizing web-enabled and
apply this methodology in various kinds of products
and machines, its integration with the working
environment (i.e. sensors, actuators, controllers, and
human interfaces) needs to be further developed. In
the next section, more details are provided about
some of the predictive intelligence tools (Watchdog
Agents™).
6.1. CMAC method for prediction of degradation
The output of Watchdog Agent™ represents
the quantitative measures of the performance of the
product or equipment at a given state. By comparing
performance value at different states, it can predict
and assess the condition and performance of complex
machinery and systems. It is known that biological
perceptual systems are often conceptualized as
containing two stages of processing: an early stage
detects individual stimulus features and a later stage
combines the detected features into abstract
representations that facilitate thought, decision
making, or action. Drawing inspiration from this
biological phenomenon, a neural network based
multi-symptom-domains behavior assessment
methodology has been developed [9, 13] as one of
the approaches used in the Watchdog Toolbox™.
This approach uses behavior-based computation
rather than a model-based computation, which often
involves in using machine condition data. Jim Albus
[8] described the overall methodology of
performance assessment with an analogy to human
sensing and assessment system. As depicted in
Figure 12, data from any physical domain (such as
high temperature, rough surface, etc.) is transformed
into a value judgment (knowledge) after sensory
processing and behavior assessment. The principle
relies on biometrics computation rather than a model-
based computation so that it can correlate multiple
relevant inputs and hashing them to a set of weight
table. Its output represents the quantitative measures
of the performance of the product or equipment at a
given state. By simply comparing performance value
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey

at different states, it can predict and assess the capability. Information regarding (a) degradation
performance of machinery and products. Figure 13 modes, (b) degradation sections of the machine, (c)
illustrates the watchdog agent remote monitoring and degradation frequency, (d) degradation time and
control system and its working principle as well as place, (e) time required to prevent, (f) cost required
how multiple signals (vibration, temperature and to prevent, (g) suggested and/or applied maintenance
current) from a gearbox and electric motor system practices, etc. is recorded and stored in a database.
are hashed, and transformed into a performance This information is used for behavior learning and
confidence index. rule extraction purposes as a part of intelligent expert
maintenance system. Hence, a knowledge base
Sensors
Sensory Value Worl d system is achieved through intelligent conversion of
Processing Judgme nt Model
temperature warmth
data into information, and information into
knowledge.
pleasure WM
skin pressure softness
skin
area SP VJ Are a
3

s 2.5
deformation Gentle stroking frame p Speed, mps
of skin m
/
d 2
e
e
p
s
x 1.5 maintenance
a
M
Figure 12: Transformation of sensed data into value 1
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Time/days
judgment (knowledge) analogous to a human’s sensing 4

system s/
e
3.5
Cy cle time (sec)
maintenance
mi 3
T
el
c
y 2.5
C
2
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Time/days

1
Failure Line
prediction2 prediction1
yt e Probability of
iil r
uil 0.5 degradation
b a
a f maintenance
b f
o
P
r o point1 point2
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
Time/days

Historical Data & Statistical Degradation Model

Events

Training and C onvergence

V ibration Real-time Degradation
Tim e D om ain T rainin g Real-life
Prediction
data

V ibration
Fr equency
D om ain
Machine
A ssessm ent
onti
a
T em perature da
gr
e
D

Estimation of
Remaining Life
C urrent
C onfidence V alue: 90
Figure 14: (a) An example of degradation prediction
scheme using applied statistics techniques. Two critical
Figure 13: Web-based Watchdog Agent™ for machine
parameters of a device component (speed and time delay
behavior learning and prediction of degradation on a
between command and status) are measured continuously
gearbox and electric motor system using CMAC approach.
and converted into a performance index (probability of
degradation) after constructing models from historical
This approach intertwines the sensor fusion, data. (b) Statistical degradation model is constructed and
hashing, behavior learning and comparison updated using historical data and events such as
techniques as illustrated in Figure 13. In the next adjustments and reset values. Its comparison with real-
generation of this approach, evaluation of the data time and real-life signal data results is probability of
can be performed either locally on the degradation and an index of estimation for remaining life
machine/product or web-based depending on the
needs of the particular application. The performance 6.2. Applied statistical approach (probability of
index and comparison results are, then, transferred degradation) for prediction of degradation
through the wireless or internet/intranet network to Figure 14a illustrates the results of another
decision making platforms such as production, prediction degradation method on a device where
maintenance and manpower scheduling as well as applied statistics techniques were used. This
supplier and shipment synchronization. Reduction approach involves the following three steps as
and conversion of data into useable health depicted in Figure 14b: (1) use historical data and/or
information through smart prognostics would maintenance adjustments and events to model a
definitely eliminate hurdles regarding the performance index for the device, (2) estimate the
transmission of large data on a given bandwidth real-time performance using real-life sensor data, and
improve the model, and (3) update equipment
 Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM 2002)
degradation predictions continuously and estimate
the remaining life based on comparison with
statistical model. Using the historical sensory signals
(speed) and controller data (cycle time), probability
of degradation model was constructed. This model is
then compared with real-time data, obtained through
D2B™ platform, to predict the instantaneous
probability of degradation (i.e. performance),
estimate the remaining life, and determine a window
of appropriate maintenance before product fails. The
frequency of computation is dependent on the
characteristics of the product/component and the data
features in the question. For a dynamic component
such as the spindle of a CNC machine tool,
computations need to be performed in very short
periods of time (i.e. seconds). For an elavator, on the
other hand, prediction frequency can be triggered as
the elevator is used. More likely it will be at larger
time intervals (i.e. minutes).
Technology
SCM
Infrastructure
Outsourcing
e-Manufacturing
VMI
Real-time
Data
e-Maintenance
Condition-based
Monitoring
Predictive
Technologies Information
Asset
pipeline
Management
Figure 15: e-Manufacturing as a wholly integrated part of
the e-Business system. e-Maintenance and its basic
elements are part of e-Manufacturing requirements.
7. Conclusions and Future Work
This paper proposes an e-Manufacturing
architecture, and outlines its fundamental
requirements and elements as well as expected
impact to achieve non-stop, efficient and integrated
operations. Information technology will play an
indispensable role in supporting and enabling the
complex practices of design and manufacturing by
providing the mechanisms to facilitate and manage
the integrated system discipline with the higher
system levels such as SCM and ERP. Manufacturers
and users will benefit from the increased equipment
and process reliability with the e-manufacturing
strategies as well as optimal asset management in
terms of rapid deployment, rapid time-to-market
cycles, non-stop operations and seamless integration
with suppliers and customer.
In order to accomplish the proposed e-
Manufacturing system to complete the e-Business
matrix, which has evolved as a consequence of global
economy demands during the past decade, the
followings need to be researched, developed and
implemented as summarized in Figure 15: (a)
predictive intelligence (algorithms, software and
agents) focusing on degradation detection on various
View publication stats
June 24-28, 2002- Gaziantep University, G. Antep, Turkey
machinery and products, (b) relation between product
quality variation and machine and process
degradation, (c) data mining, reduction and data-to-
information-to-knowledge conversion tools, (d)
reliable, scalable and common informatics platform
between devices and business including
implementation of wireless, Internet and Ethernet
networks in the manufacturing environment to
achieve flexible and low cost installations and
commissioning, (e) data/information security and
vulnerability issues at the machine/product level, (f)
distributed and web-based computing, (d)
optimization and synchronization systems for
dynamic decision making, (g) education and training
of technicians, engineers and leaders to make them
capable of pacing with the speed of information flow
and understanding the overall structure, and (h) a
new enterprise culture that has the flexibility of local
dynamic decision making and strength of global
competition.
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Real-time
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