Enterprise Models for the Design and Management of Manufacturing Systems

All engineered systems and their products (hereafter collectively referred to as manufacturing systems) are called upon to perform particular technical functions in an economic system. Economic systems are in reality networks of enterprises (corporate and/or individual) each of which is engaged in two generic classes of processes: a) the “real” physical/biological processes that use energy to transform matter from one technically specific form to another through the application of human knowledge and the dissipation of physical energy and skill-specific human time, and b) human-based cybernetic (information and decision) control processes for which the “real” physical and biological processes are objects of development and control. This paper reports a set of logically consistent models and a framework for quantitatively evaluating the underlying material and energy requirements of manufacturing enterprises and the products which they produce as a physical system. These methods integrate engineering and economic information necessary for design and management decisions at various levels of organization of the enterprise. Because they can provide analysis at multiple levels of enterprise and economic organization, the models are also ideally suited to environmental “Life-Cycle Assessment” of the material and energetic characteristics of networks of enterprises producing products. Quantitative analysis using these methods may be readily implemented using computer software.