Division of Information Technology, Engineering and the Environment
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
School of Advanced Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering
Thesis Abstract
Manufacturing enterprises face challenges from increased global competition and struggle to extend their business worldwide in today's economic climate. Therefore, these enterprises tend to use fully integrated manufacturing systems so that they can have the capabilities to rapidly respond to ever-changing customer requirements and produce high quality products in shortest possible time with lowest possible cost. However, Small and Medium manufacturing Enterprises (SMMEs) are having difficulties in achieving this flexibility and competing with large companies, since SMMEs often do not have enough resources. Virtual Computer Integrated Manufacturing (VCIM), which is a network of interconnected global Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) systems, extends traditional concept of CIM from a local and centralized system to worldwide co-operation. The aim of this research is to further develop and identify the issues inside the current agent-based VCIM architecture, and propose several improvements which may add more flexibility and usability to VCIM. This will help Australian SMMEs improve their competitiveness in the international market. By integrating Web services model, this implementation is an effort to establish the VCIM theory as a realistic application for the SMMEs, with the consideration of communication methods among SMMEs.
