Improvement of virtual manufacturing technologies for product changes and uncertainties

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Highly customized and varying products in the market increase unpredictability and uncertainty of manufacturing systems. Virtual manufacturing (VM) has been proved a cost-effective technology for mass customization and system flexibility. VM is increasingly employed in various applications of product design and manufacturing. Manufacturing systems however are hierarchical, heterogeneous and distributed in the complicated dynamic environment of product development. It is a challenge to model manufacturing systems using existing methods and tools. The potential of VM as a changeability enabler has not been explored in depth. Existing VM solutions do not give enough decision reliability. Efficient modeling and human role in the decision-making have to be integrated into VM systems to meet the need of dynamic manufacturing environments for handling uncertainty and complexity of manufacturing systems.