Developing manufacturing control software: A survey and critique

The complexity and diversity of manufacturing software and the need to adapt this software to the frequent changes in the production requirements necessitate the use of a systematic approach to developing this software. The software life-cycle model that consists of specifying the requirements of a software system, designing, implementing, testing, and evolving this software can be followed when developing large portions of manufacturing software. However, the presence of hardware devices in these systems and the high costs of acquiring and operating hardware devices further complicate the manufacturing software development process and require that the functionality of this software be extended to incorporate simulation and prototyping. This paper reviews recent methods for planning, scheduling, simulating, and monitoring the operation of manufacturing systems. A synopsis of the approaches to designing and implementing the real-time control software of these systems is presented. It is concluded that current methodologies support, in a very restricted sense, these planning, scheduling, and monitoring activities, and that enhanced performance can be achieved via an integrated approach.