An expanded SEMATECH CIM framework for heterogeneous applications integration

A significant effort in recent computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) development was carried out by SEMATECH who had laid out and created an open framework for the integration of manufacturing execution system applications running in semiconductor industries at the factory operation level. This paper presents the feasibility to incorporate basic manufacturing applications at the factory engineering level, which include product design, process planning, and material requirement planning, into the SEMATECH CIM framework to form a generic framework across both factory operation level and factory engineering level. The CIM framework established in this paper was aimed to provide a reusable integrated system framework that clearly specifies the functional interface boundaries and standard information model of the required components, in general, manufacturing systems at both factory operation and factory engineering levels. Standard unified modeling language (UML) diagrams and Petri nets have been utilized to model and analyze the specifications and dynamic behaviors of this generic CIM framework. The goal is to build a framework by creating a common, modular, flexible, and integrated object model that unifies an advanced object-oriented architecture concept and heterogeneous manufacturing application development in an open and multisupplier CIM system environment.