Zugl.: Marburg, Univ., Diss., 2008

The diploma thesis covers principles, history, implementation process and selected real MES systems. First part is focused theoretically and covers an introduction to topic of MES systems based on current literature. In this part main terms, principles and historical evolution are covered. Next the thesis describes implementation process in more detail and identifies its critical factors. This process is compared with implementation process of general applications and main differences are identified. In next part of the thesis metrics system for measuring of MES systems is established. Based on these metrics selected MES systems are introduced and are evaluated. Then these systems are compared and their main differences are identified with an explanation. Last part of the thesis is focused on system Apriso FlexNet (hereinafter FlexNet). In this part FlexNet is described in more detail and critical evaluation is made according to identified principles in theoretical part and characteristics of other presented systems. Trough fulfilling its aims the thesis provides introduction to the topic of MES systems, presents several selected systems and compares them. Last but not least FlexNet system is introduced in more detail with its critical evaluation.

Even though software testing takes more than 40% of the total development cost, especially the massive amount of devoted efforts and resources, software testing is nevertheless the least respectable part in many software projects when comparing to design and development. The challenge becomes bigger as the software becomes more complicated. This has been further compounded by lacking of appropriate attention and suitable resource allocation. As a result, it becomes a global concern and issue on how software testing can be more effective to guard the software quality control. Software testing techniques have evolved for decades and almost reached the maturity level. Why software testing is not successful is mostly related to lacking of enough respect by management. Therefore, creating a software testing institution is necessary to put enough control on the process and to establish a regulation for implementation. This research employs software testing theory standards, institutional theory and control theory to come out with an ideal software testing institution. A case study is used to validate the ideal software testing institution. Software testing theories are to create a software testing process, which can be divided into planning, design and execution phases. Institutional theory is to create a regulation and as a basis for implementation. Control theory is to empower control mechanisms on testing to ensure the progress comply with the final goals. The ideal software testing institution provided by this research is appropriate for joint-development outsourcing project. When both customer and vendor are involved in testing, it¡¦s recommended to define separate test plans with consistent schedule to prevent from resource idle or inconsistency between software and documentation. Since both parties will produce software source code and documentation, it¡¦s also recommended to define the working model and version control rules as a basis for cooperation. Finally, Employing configuration management can avoid unnecessary conflicts and confusion.

Orientador: Fernando Augusto Silva Marins / Banca: Messias Borges Silva / Banca: Jorge Muniz Junior / Banca: Alfredo Colenci Junior / Banca: Napoleão Verardi Galegare / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar as contribuições da implantação da tecnologia de informação MES - Manufacturing Execution System - para a melhoria das dimensões competitivas da manufatura. Foi realizada uma fundamentação teórica sobre as tecnologias de informação e sua importância para o negócio, as contribuições dos fatores organizacionais para a implantação do MES bem como os principais conceitos e aplicações da TI. O referencial teórico construído foi determinante para subsidiar a pesquisa de campo realizada na empresa NOVELIS Brasil Ltda., que vem implantando o MES desde 1999, inicialmente na área de refusão e atualmente na área de laminação a frio. Verificou-se, com a pesquisa de campo, que a implantação do MES contribuiu significativamente para a melhoria das dimensões competitivas da manufatura, em particular custo, qualidade, flexibilidade, conformidade e confiabilidade. Concluiu-se que o MES melhorou o nível da informação gerada no chão de fábrica, fazendo com que esta fosse rápida, padronizada, confiável e precisa. Ao se integrar ao ERP da empresa, o MES preencheu uma lacuna, levando informação às várias áreas funcionais da organização. As entrevistas junto às áreas da empresa mostraram a importância da rastreabilidade de seus produtos, concluindo que esta dimensão é considerada uma prioridade competitiva da manufatura, pois permite, em tempo real, saber a situação de um produto no decorrer de seu processo / Abstract: This work investigates the contributions of MES - Manufacturing Execution System - for improve the competitive priorities of manufacturing. We present a theoretical framework on the information technologies and its business importance, the contributions of organizational factors for implementation MES as well as the main concepts and applications of that IT tool. The built theoretical framework was decisive to subsidize the research performance in the studied company since the beginning of MES adoption in 1999 until its conclusion in 2008. It was verified that MES contributed significantly to the manufacturing related to improvement cost, quality, flexibility, conformity and reliability. It was concluded that MES improved information quality generated in the plant floor, that is, information become it fast, standardized, reliable and precise. When integrated to the ERP of the company, MES filled out a gap, offering information to others functional areas of the organization. The interviews, conducted in businesses areas on the company, showed the importance of products tracking, and MES implementation was decisive to improve that issue, concluding that dimension is considered a competitive priority of the manufacture / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:35:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-05-09Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:25:02Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 neves_jms_dr_guara.pdf: 898102 bytes, checksum: d1076b6b68f9cce0d4f9a28fba82f1a3 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Este trabalho tem como objetivo investigar as contribuições da implantação da tecnologia de informação MES – Manufacturing Execution System - para a melhoria das dimensões competitivas da manufatura. Foi realizada uma fundamentação teórica sobre as tecnologias de informação e sua importância para o negócio, as contribuições dos fatores organizacionais para a implantação do MES bem como os principais conceitos e aplicações da TI. O referencial teórico construído foi determinante para subsidiar a pesquisa de campo realizada na empresa NOVELIS Brasil Ltda., que vem implantando o MES desde 1999, inicialmente na área de refusão e atualmente na área de laminação a frio. Verificou-se, com a pesquisa de campo, que a implantação do MES contribuiu significativamente para a melhoria das dimensões competitivas da manufatura, em particular custo, qualidade, flexibilidade, conformidade e confiabilidade. Concluiu-se que o MES melhorou o nível da informação gerada no chão de fábrica, fazendo com que esta fosse rápida, padronizada, confiável e precisa. Ao se integrar ao ERP da empresa, o MES preencheu uma lacuna, levando informação às várias áreas funcionais da organização. As entrevistas junto às áreas da empresa mostraram a importância da rastreabilidade de seus produtos, concluindo que esta dimensão é considerada uma prioridade competitiva da manufatura, pois permite, em tempo real, saber a situação de um produto no decorrer de seu processo / This work investigates the contributions of MES – Manufacturing Execution System – for improve the competitive priorities of manufacturing. We present a theoretical framework on the information technologies and its business importance, the contributions of organizational factors for implementation MES as well as the main concepts and applications of that IT tool. The built theoretical framework was decisive to subsidize the research performance in the studied company since the beginning of MES adoption in 1999 until its conclusion in 2008. It was verified that MES contributed significantly to the manufacturing related to improvement cost, quality, flexibility, conformity and reliability. It was concluded that MES improved information quality generated in the plant floor, that is, information become it fast, standardized, reliable and precise. When integrated to the ERP of the company, MES filled out a gap, offering information to others functional areas of the organization. The interviews, conducted in businesses areas on the company, showed the importance of products tracking, and MES implementation was decisive to improve that issue, concluding that dimension is considered a competitive priority of the manufacture

Detta examensarbete har genomförts i VBG Groups maskinverkstad i Vänersborg, där kommunikation mellan maskiner och affärssystem genomförs manuellt. Ett förslag har tagits fram på hur ett Manufacturing Execution System, MES, ska implementeras i maskinverkstaden. Ett MES är ett system som kommunicerar automatiskt mellan maskiner och affärssystem. Det har genomförts intervjuer och studiebesök på ett företag som har ett MES installerat i sin produktion. Det har skickats ut en enkät till de som kommer att använda systemet i framtiden för att få deras synpunkter. Resultatet från enkäten gav en bild över vilken data som är viktigast att ha tillgång till för att underlätta det dagliga arbetet för de anställda. Utifrån denna enkät och studiebesöket på VBG har behov kunnat fastställas, som det slutgiltiga förslaget har baserats på. Förslaget är att implementera Siemens Mindsphere tillsammans med Prevas eLIPS. Genom att använda sig av både Mindsphere och eLIPS kan alla nuvarande fastställda behov uppfyllas, med möjligheten att kunna uppfylla framtida behov, vilket är möjligt tack vare systemens modularitet. / This bachelor thesis has been carried out in VBG Group's machine workshop in Vänersborg, where the communication between machines and business systems is done manually. A proposal has been made on how a Manufacturing Execution System will be implemented in the machine workshop. MES is a system that communicates automatically between machines and business systems. Interviews have been conducted along with a visit to a company that has an MES installed in its production. A survey has been sent out to employees that will use the system in the future to get their opinion. The results from the survey provided a better understanding of which data is most important to have access to, in order to ease the daily work for the employees. The survey and the company visit to VBG h§as made it possible to determine the needs, on which the final proposal has been based on. The proposal is to implement Siemens Mindsphere together with Prevas eLIPS. By using both Mindsphere and eLIPS, all current needs can be fulfilled, with the ability to meet future needs, thanks to the modularity of the systems.

Background. Automation in production has become a necessity for producing companies to keep up with the demand created by their customers. One way to automate a process is to use a piece of hardware called a programmable logic controller (PLC). A PLC is a small computer capable of being programmed to process a set of inputs, from e.g. sensors, and create outputs, to e.g. actuators, from that. This eliminates the risk of human errors while at the same time speeding up the production rate of the now near identical products. To improve the automation process on the shop floor and the production process in general a special software system is used. This system is known as the manufacturing execution system (MES), and it is connected to the PLCs and other devices on the shop floor. The MES have different functionalities and one of these is that it can manage instructions. Theses instructions can be aimed to both employees and devices such as the PLCs. Would the MES suffer from an error, e.g. in the instructions sent to the shop floor, the company could suffer from a negative impact both economical and in reputation. Since the PLC is a computer and it is connected to the MES it might be possible to attack the system using the PLC as leverage. Objectives. Examine if it is possible to attack the MES using a PLC as the attack origin. Methods. A literature study was performed to see what types of attacks and vulnerabilities that has been disclosed related to PLCs between 2010 and 2018. Secondly a practical experiment was done, trying to perform attacks targeting the MES. Results. The results are that there are many different types of attacks and vulnerabilities that has been found related to PLCs and the attacks done in the practical experiment failed to induce negative effects in the MES used. Conclusions. The conclusion of the thesis is that two identified PLC attack techniques seems likely to be used to attack the MES layer. The methodology that was used to attack the MES layer in the practical experiment failed to affect the MES in a negative way. However, it was possible to affect the log file of the MES in one of the test cases. So, it does not rule out that other MES types are not vulnerable or that the two PLC attacks identified will not work to affect the MES. / Bakgrund. Automatisering inom produktion har blivit nödvändigt för att företag ska kunna tillgodose den efterfrågan som deras kunder skapar. Ett sätt att automatisera denna process är genom att använde en typ av hårdvara som på engelska kallas för programmable logic controller (PLC). En PLC är en liten dator som man kan programmera så att den bearbetar signaler in, från t.ex. sensorer, och skapar signaler ut, till t.ex. motorer, från det. Detta eliminerar då risken för mänskliga fel samtidigt som det snabbar upp produktionen av de nu nästan identiska produkterna. För att förbättra automatiseringsprocessen på golvet i fabrikerna och även tillverkningsprocessen generellt så används ett speciellt mjukvarusystem. Detta system kallas på engelska execution manufacturing system (MES), och detta system är kopplat till PLCerna och annan utrustning på produktionsgolvet. MESen har olika funktionaliteter och en utav dessa är hantering av instruktioner. Dessa instruktioner kan vara riktade både till anställda samt utrustning så som PLCer. Skulle det inträffa ett fel i MESen, t.ex. i instruktionerna som skickas till produktionsgolvet, så skulle företaget kunna få lida av negativa konsekvenser både ekonomiskt och för företagets rykte. I och med att en PLC är en dator och den är kopplad till MES så kan det finnas möjligheter att utföra attacker mot MESen genom att använda en PLC som utgångspunkt. Syfte. Undersöka om det är möjligt att utföra en attack på en MES med utgångspunkt från en PLC. Metod. En litteraturstudie genomfördes för att ta reda på vilka typer av attacker samt sårbarheter relaterade till PLCer som publicerats mellan 2010 och 2018. Ett praktiskt experiment utfördes också, där attackförsök gjordes på ett MES. Resultat. Resultatet är att det finns många olika attacktyper samt sårbarheter som upptäckts relaterade till PLCer och att de attacker som utfördes i det praktiska experimentet inte lyckades skapa några negativa effekter i det MES som användes. Slutsatser. Slutsatsen för examensarbetet är att två olika typer av de hittade PLC-attackerna verkar vara kapabla till att användas för att attackera MES-lagret. Metoden som användes i det praktiska försöket lyckades inte påverka MES-lagret negativt. Men det gick att påverka MESens logfil i ett av testfallen, så det går inte att fastslå att andra MES-typer inte är sårbara mot detta eller att de två identifierade PLC-attackerna inte kommer kunna påverka MES-lagret negativt.

Despite decades of automation initiatives, manual assembly still represents one of the most cost-effective approaches in scenarios with high product variety and complex geometry. It represents 50% of total production time and 20% of total production cost. Understanding human performance and its impact in the assembly line is key in order to improve the overall performance of an assembly line. Along this thesis work, by studying the deviations occurring in the line, it is aimed to understand how human workers are affected by certain functioning aspects of the assembly line. To do so, three different influence factors have been chosen, and then observed its impact in human performance: i. How past events occurring in the line affect the current action of the worker. ii. How do scheduled stops affect the current action of the worker. iii. How does theoretical cycle time affect the performance of the worker. In order to observe these influence relationships, it has been used data gathered in the shop floor from SCANIA's Manufacturing Execution System (MES). By applying methods of Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD) data has been indexed and the analyzed providing the necessary results for the study. Finally, from the results shown, it can be inferred that variability on the functioning of the line does have an impact on human performance overall. However, due the complexity of the manufacturing system, impact in human performance might not be as regular as initially thought. / Trots decennier av automatiseringsinitiativ utgör manuell montering fortfarande en av de mest kostnadseffektiva metoderna i scenarier med hög produktsortiment och komplex geometri. Den representerar 50% av den totala produktionstiden och 20% av den totala produktionskostnaden. Att förstå mänsklig prestanda och dess inverkan i monteringsledningen är nyckeln för att förbättra den totala prestandan hos en monteringslinje. Utöver detta avhandlingsarbete, genom att studera avvikelserna som uppstår i linjen, syftar det till att förstå hur mänskliga arbetstagare påverkas av vissa fungerande aspekter av monteringslinjen. För att göra det har tre olika inflytningsfaktorer valts och sedan observerat dess inverkan i mänsklig prestation: i. Hur tidigare händelser som uppstår i linjen påverkar arbetarens nuvarande åtgärder. ii. Hur påverkar planerade stopp arbetstagarens nuvarande åtgärder. iii. Hur påverkar teoretisk cykeltid arbetarens prestation. För att observera dessa inflytningsrelationer har det använts data som samlats in i butiksgolvetfrån SCANIAs Manufacturing Execution System (MES). Genom att tillämpa metoder för Knowledge Discovery i Database (KDD) har data indexerats och analyseras vilket ger de nödvändiga resultaten för studien. Slutligen kan det framgå av de visade resultaten att variationen i linjens funktion har en inverkan på den mänskliga prestationen övergripande. På grund av tillverkningssystemets komplexitet kan emellertid effekten i mänsklig prestanda inte vara så regelbunden som ursprungligen tänkt.

On the basis of extensive practical experience in the development of agent-based systems for manufacturing execution and agent-based systems in general, a reference model for holonic execution known as HERA (Holonic Execution Reference Architecture) is developed. The model is characterised by a focus on holarchy - Koestler's Janus Effect (Koestler, 1967) is explicitly captured. However, the Holonic Manufacturing Systems (HMS) Consortium's view of a holon having an information processing part and a physical part (Brennan and Norrie, 2003) is also present. We refer to these parts as the behaviour and the embodiment respectively.

The industry of our country has turned to the Hi-Tech industry gradually, the competition among the same industry is fiercer and fiercer, different properties of industries move towards the road of the heterogeneous alliance gradually too. Under this rival environment, without doing out of the common being, the ability that will lose key competition soon withdraws , the management of making the respect is an indispensable ring too, because management is not good, even more advanced technology may be unable to consolidate enterprises in the position of the environment now. Service Quality Management (SQM) is a kind of management idea that can be suitable for various trades, the service pointed herein refers to various functions that all industries offer in general. This research will canvass the concept of Service Quality Management, use in our country the semiconductor assembly factory of Manufacturing Execution System (MES), embed Preventive Maintenance and Productivity Maintenance Systematic association, in order to reach the different property systems, carry on discussion and analysis. The systems of two kinds of different ways, build the system which forms different management styles by way of simulation, and use Arena simulation software to simulation and analysis under different situation, and canvass its own benefits. The results can be regarded as the manufacturing industry reference basis while construct a Manufacturing Execution System into or revised.