Title: E-manufacturing system: from design to performance evaluation

Authors: Sunil Pranit Lal, Godfrey C. Onwubolu

Addresses: Complex System Laboratory, Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of the Ryukyus, 1 Senbaru, Nishihara, Okinawa 903-0213, Japan. ' School of Engineering and Physics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the South Pacific, Private Mail Bag, Laucala Campus, Suva, Fiji Islands

Abstract: This paper documents the application development stages of an internet-based manufacturing system touching on issues ranging from motivation to system response. Preliminary investigations were carried out to get an overview of internet connections in terms of loss rate and temporal communication delays. These initial results lead to identification of the key requirements, which were factored into the final design, subsequently implemented as the three tiered web-based manufacturing system. The e-manufacturing system developed features platform independent and cost effective means of securely tele-operating a three-axis computer numerically controlled drilling machine, as well as providing an infrastructure to allow remote manufacturers to collaborate on product design and monitor the machining process in real time. Experimentations on the system performance indicated that the system provides fairness in handling multiple possibly concurrent users, and is highly responsive in terms of negligible processing delays as well as respectable submission job times largely dependent on remote users| bandwidth.

Keywords: web-based manufacturing; computer numerical control; CNC machining; teleoperation; distributed systems; network security; performance evaluation; remote manufacturing; internet manufacturing; e-manufacturing; CNC drilling; product design; collaborative design; collaboration; process monitoring.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMS.2008.022990

International Journal of Internet Manufacturing and Services, 2008 Vol.1 No.4, pp.323 - 344

Published online: 06 Feb 2009 *

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