A method to evaluate interface compatibility during production system design and reconfiguration

Abstract

Manufacturing companies operate in volatile environment, where agility and responsiveness to change are desired from the production systems. Such responsiveness could be facilitated by computerized methods for resource selection and system design. We have developed a capability based matchmaking method, which compares the product requirements against resource capabilities, and which proposes resource combinations meeting these requirements. One part of this method is interface matchmaking algorithm, which is presented in this paper. Interface matchmaking method evaluates if the proposed set of resources can be connected physically together. It utilizes the formalized interface information provided by the resource descriptions.