Computer-aided facility life cycle management

To make best use of functionality of a manufacturing facility, it is important to facilitate information flow among various activities performed during facility life cycle. This paper discuss information infrastructure for facility life cycle management which provides an environment for information sharing throughout the facility life cycle, and computer tools which support analysis and evaluation required for facility management. As examples of such tools, a life cycle simulation system and a trouble data management system are described. In the life cycle simulation, aging processes of the facility are evaluated when it carries out a specified task. The system was applied to assembling robots of a car parts manufacturing plant. The trouble data management system supports maintenance personnel in collecting trouble data in a unified way, and to generate feedback data for purposes of design improvement as well as operation and maintenance planning