A manufacturing model representation of a flexible manufacturing facility

The manufacturing model is an information model that describes the manufacturing capability of a particular enterprise. To achieve general applicability, the model consists of the entities that are relevant and important for any type of manufacturing firm, namely: manufacturing resources (e.g. machines, tools, operators, etc.), manufacturing processes (e.g. machining processes, assembly, etc.) and manufacturing strategies (e.g. how these resources are organized and used). The manufacturing model is a four-level model based on a de facto standard (i.e. factory, shop, cell, station) that represents the functionality of the manufacturing facility of any firm. The manufacturing model concept presented in this paper represents the manufacturing capability of a high-performance flexible manufacturing facility.