Development of a Reference Enterprise Model for Fixture Design Information Support in Integrated Manufacturing

Abstract

A crucial factor in the success of developing integrated manufacturing systems lies in the ability to exchange information among the various computer-aided systems. Although a vast amount of research has been conducted on computer-aided fixture design systems, the need for information exchange between a fixture design system and other manufacturing systems has not been dealt with thoroughly. Models for the exchange of information within an enterprise or within an extended enterprise depend on the functionality and behaviour of individual enterprises. One means of developing an information model for an enterprise is to determine the information requirements by modelling the enterprise. However, this results in a monolithic model that is only applicable to that enterprise. As a solution to this drawback, we describe the development of a reference model for fixture design information support, which can be instantiated to be applied to different types of enterprises. We concentrate on machining fixtures and information from the fixture design domain to other domains.