A STEP-based manufacturing information system to share flexible manufacturing resources data

The paper describes the design and implementation of a Manufacturing Information System as a solution to share and exchange manufacturing data. The Manufacturing Information System possesses relevant features for data sharing and exchanging, that are compliant to the standard ISO 10303, known as STEP1. It is known that manufacturing planning and execution activities require data from machine-tools, robots, ASRSs(2), AGVs(3) and, on the other hand, computer-based applications (CAM(4), CAPP(5) or PAC(6)) use proprietary formats to store flexible manufacturing resources data. The way the proprietary formats are built has lead to incompatibilities and interoperability problems among the applications. It is argued that by solving these problems a qualitative functional synergy will result during manufacturing planning and execution activities. The suggested solution is using a STEP-based information system, a server and a prototype client application. These three programs are implemented in Java classes to facilitate data sharing and exchanging of flexible manufacturing resources.