Graphical Languages for Manufacturing Operations

The international standard IEC 62264, also known as ISA95, deals with Enterprise-Control System integration and Manufacturing Operations Management. The standard contains, among other things, a description of what Manufacturing Operations means. The description states that The activities of manufacturing operations management are those activities of a manufacturing facility that coordinate the personnel, equipment, material, and energy in the conversion of raw materials and/or parts into products. Manufacturing operations management includes activities that may be performed by physical equipment, human effort, and information systems. A model for the activities involved in Manufacturing Operations is presented in the standard. As global competition in manufacturing has increased, trends within industry have been to increase the level and amount of control and automation. This means that the activities involved in the manufacturing operations management needs to be well synchronized, coordinated and integrated with each other. This can be assured via different means, for example by the usage of a graphical language. The graphical language lets the user specify what activities that should be performed and in what order etc. Even though the standard presents a model for the activities involved in Manufacturing Operations it does not speak about how the synchronization and coordination between the activities should be done. This paper will describe why a graphical language would be suitable for this task, what requirements the graphical language should fulfill in order to be successful, and what advantages this could bring to its use