A reusable rapid prototyping environment for monitoring in a discrete part manufacturing and semi process industry

The trend towards concurrent engineering and rapid system prototyping has placed additional requirements forcing a reorientation from a tool to a process view and complex synthesis engines. At the very beginning the user puts his thoughts on paper and at the end he tests the results of his ideas. For two representative industrial applications: discrete part manufacturing (car assembly line) and a semi-process industry (aluminium melting and casting) a rapid prototyping environment is proposed to be used for monitoring purposes. The environment is based on the CIM open system architecture (CIMOSA). Monitoring activities are modelled according to the CIMOSA modelling framework. These models are executed by the CIMOSA integrating infrastructure. The rapid prototyping environment is built around the McCIM tool kit; it promotes reuse, innovation and correct design. The resulting McCIM configuration is presented and the implementation issues of the monitoring architecture are discussed