The importance of holistic model driven manufacturing systems

The findings of two UK government funded studies are reviewed which have highlighted requirements of next generation manufacturing systems. The studies have (a) generated a view of alternative futures for manufacturing enterprises and (b) identified barriers to their realization. This illustrates an important future role for holistic model driven manufacturing systems, which respond rapidly to competitive forces and sociopolitical economic change while maintaining good alignment between business goals and related processes and operations. The findings help to identify requirements of next generation enterprise integration methods, architectural frameworks, reference models, integration mechanisms and component elements. Based on this requirement definition the capabilities of emerging and proprietary enterprise integration methods and tools have been assessed and classified.