A UML-based approach for the development of shop floor control systems

As a key part of computer integrated manufacturing (CIM), shop floor control systems (SFCS) play an essential role in the effective operations of a shop floor. The development of SFCSs is an extremely complex process, given the requirements for synchronisation and coordination. Object-oriented methods offer a promising solution to develop a reusable, maintainable and interoperable SFCS. However, current O-O practices for developing SFCSs are hindered by proprietary representations, which may lead to problems with the portability and interoperability of models. UML, as an industrial standard for O-O notations, has been widely accepted by practitioners to describe static and dynamic parts of a complex system. From the perspective of software engineering, UML offers a variety of standard notations to support the full life-cycle of system development. In this paper, an approach to developing an SFCS using UML through analysis, design and implementation phases is presented, based on the three level hierarchical architecture. An example workstation is studied as an illustration to clarify the proposed approach. In addition to the reusability, portability and maintainability, the presented UML-based development enhances the efficiencies and qualities of SFCS development, considering a wide range of mature tool supports (such as Rational Rose) for UML are available.