Engineering Processes for Decentralized Factory Automation Systems

The necessity to improve the current automation concepts for cost reduction in factory automation represents a widely discussed problem. Research has developed solutions for this problem area for quite some time based on decentralized automation concepts (e.g., holonic systems, agent systems). For an overview of agent-oriented systems, please refer to (Jennings, 2000; Weis, 2002); for agent-oriented or holonic automation systems, see (Parunak 1998; Shen et. al, 2006; Barata, 2001; Wagner et. al., 2003). However, industrial companies have shown reluctance concerning a broad application in practice. The reasons reside mainly in lacking engineering methods for systematic implementation in industrial businesses (Hall et. al., 2005) and lacking reliable evaluation of the consequences for application domains over the entire life cycle (Lu & Jafari, 2007). The main goal for the development of decentralized automation concepts and systems is to achieve flexibility in factory automation systems, driven by ever more rapidly changing production conditions, such as order variations, changing products, load variations, or plugp Wagner & Goehner, 2006). Hence, the value promised by decentralized automation concepts mainly resides in the improvement of operative parameters of a plant, for instance, through more flexibility of usage, higher efficiency, or availability. Such parameters were evaluated based on prototypes, as well as by means of simulation, and were verified with a relatively good validity (Sundermeyer & Bussmann, 2001; Thramboulidis, 2008). However, the costs for introducing and applying decentralized automation concepts and systems – in terms of total cost of ownership (TCO) – have not been properly investigated yet, neither in science nor in industrial application. The reason is that we know much about the operation phase behaviour of production facilities using decentralized automation systems, but there exists hardly any explanation of the impact, in terms of benefits and risks, on the entire industrial life cycle (Habib 2007). In addition to operating costs, the second most important aspect of TCO lies in the activities and processes for engineering (design, realization, and commissioning) of production facilities. The related cost potential is certainly significant. In 2005, automotive manufacturers identified the portion of 1

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