Considerations on Utilizing the Object-Oriented Paradigm in the Development of an MRP-based Production Planning SystemConsiderations on Utilizing the Object-Oriented Paradigm in the Development of an MRP-based Production Planning System

Abstract

Manufacturing companies today face an increasingly dynamic environment. Development of production planning systems requires approaches that offer flexibility in development of solutions. Applying the UML (Unified Modeling Language) and MDA (Model Driven Architecture) paradigm can ensure compatibility between applications developed on different platforms. The MDA approach to software development becomes an obvious choice. In this approach, the models drive the process of software development. These models are defined at different levels of abstraction to represent various aspects of the system. The transformation of models from one level of abstraction to another, or the transformation of models to executable code is performed by using automated transformation tools. The strength of MDA lies in the fact that it is based on widely used industry standards for visualizing, storing and exchanging software designs and models. The models in MDA are abstracted at three different levels – the Computation Independent Model (CIM), the Platform Independent Model (PIM) and the Platform Specific Model (PSM).  The key to the success of MDA lies in automated or semi-automated model-to-model and model-to-code transformations. In this paper, we examine how a platform-independent model of an MRP-based production planning system can be created using MDA approach, from which several platform-specific systems can be achieved, as required.