Increasing the Flexibility of Manufacturing: A Service-oriented Approach in Automation

In addition to the already required functionality, future production systems should consider the requirements of flexible and demand-oriented resource utilization. Those are not only related on fields of energy, but also material-efficient and time-efficient use of available means of production. Modular system architectures and modular solutions facilitate the planning and implementation of these requirements. Using service-oriented architectures in automation allow an approach for new or modified system components that can be integrated in the available plant environment without a high additional investment of project engineering. This aspect is interesting for companies with manageable machinery, which are able to react immediately and flexible to changes. Service-oriented solutions include among other things the identification, classification and synchronization of possible services. The paper will show general prerequisites for an implementation of a service-oriented architecture in a module-based test field.