Agile Assembly System by “Plug and Produce”

Abstract For highly flexible and agile assembly systems, installation of manufacturing devices is indispensable technology. In this paper, we propose a “Plug & Produce” concept. It is a methodology to introduce a new manufacturing device into a manufacturing system easily and quickly. It can also remove the device easily from the system. It is designed by analogy of Plug & Play concept in computer world. A holonic assembly system is installed using proposed Plug & Produce architecture. The validity of the proposed architecture is verified by experiments with robots and a belt conveyor. A robot will be installed to an existing cell in a short time. The proposed concept can enhance the agility of assembly systems greatly.