Study on interoperation and its’ implementation of MES to support virtual factory

Abstract

Abstract The data interoperation between VF (virtual factory) platform and MES (Manufacturing Execution System) plays an important role in intelligent factory construction. The study focuses on the integration strategy between the VF and the MES by incorporating VF manufacturing assets in two ways, i.e., vertical integration (used for production line performance evaluation) and the horizontal integration (cloud manufacturing based on manufacturing assets services discovery and their composition). The VF platform which integrates the manufacturing assets in two manners is designed as the bottom layer in the entire integration framework. It has been applied to build a four tiers integration model in an intelligent production system construction of a domestic ship manufacturer and verified its feasibility and availability.