A Java application based on an EXPRESS model for sharing flexible manufacturing resources data

This paper describes a Java application based upon an EXPRESS meta model, that is used to share and exchange flexible manufacturing resources data. It is described how manufacturing activities require data from machine-tools, robots, automated storage/retrieval systems and AGVs, against the fact that computer-based applications like CAD, CAM, CAPP or PAC use proprietary formats to store flexible manufacturing resources data. These proprietary formats lead to incompatibilities and interoperability problems among them. It is argued that by solving these problems great functional synergy will result during manufacturing planning and execution activities. A STEP-based information system, implemented in several hundreds Java classes, is proposed as a solution to facilitate data sharing and exchanging of flexible manufacturing resources.