Comparing the Control Structures of ISA S88- and Holonic Component-Based Architecture

It is generally believed that a distributed intelligent system, such as a holonic manufacturing system (HMS), should be more reconfigurable than a conventional hierarchical manufacturing system (HiMS). However, a recent case study suggested that the control structure of a modern HiMS, such as ISA S88-based manufacturing system, can-under certain condition-be as reconfigurable as that of a HMS, such as holonic component-based architecture (HCBA)-based manufacturing system . This result is particularly interesting and this paper focuses on clarifying this issue. This is done by analyzing the control structure and the ease of reconfiguration of both HCBA and ISA S88-based manufacturing systems. It is found that both architectures possess similar level of ease of reconfiguration because both architectures are product-driven manufacturing control and their control functions are independent to product and production system.