Currently, Manufacturing Execution

Currently, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) enable the data flow among design, process, and
manufacturing systems. The ERP systems serve as an engine for driving the operations and the supply
chain systems. However, the existing structure of the ERP and MES cannot information (i.e., communicate
the information in real-time) the decision across the supply chain systems. The major functions and
objectives of e-Manufacturing are: (1) enable an only handle information once (OHIO) environment; (2)
predict and optimize total asset utilization in the plant floor; (3) synchronize asset information with supply
chain network; and (4) automate business and customer service processes. The proposed e-manufacturing
architecture in this position paper addresses the above needs.
To address these needs, an e-Manufacturing system should offer comprehensive solutions by addressing
the following requirements: (1) development of intelligent agents for continuous, real time, remote, and distributed
monitoring of devices, machinery, and systems to predict machine’s performance status (health
condition) and to enable capabilities of producing quality parts; (2) development of infotronics platform
that is scalable and reconfigurable for data transformation, prognostics, performance optimization, and synchronization;
and (3) development of virtual design platform for collaborative design and manufacturing
among suppliers, design, and process engineers as well as customers for fast validation and decision making.
Figure 97.5 illustrates the proposed e-Manufacturing architecture and its elements [5–7].
Data gathering and transformation: This has already been done at various levels.However, massive raw data
are not useful unless it is reduced and transformed into useful information format (i.e., XML) for responsive
actions. Hence, data reconfiguration and mining tools for data reduction, representation for plant floor data