Design and implementation of a CORBA-based reconfigurable software system for distributed manufacturing

Global competition and rapidly changing market demands have forced manufacturing companies to change the production style and configuration of manufacturing organizations. Owing to the trend of using the computer aided. technology in manufacturing, providing global network service has become the key factor to survive in the changing market. Current CAD/CAM systems are usually designed to operate in an isolated environment and are unable to communicate with each other. Therefore, the communication and collaboration as well as integration of the manufacturing environments are often limited. To enhance the advantage of the dispersed department and personnel among various enterprises, the use of network to communicate and exchange information can greatly improve the production efficiency. Moreover, manufacturing system should accommodate various kinds of demands of production condition and functional operation in the tendency of upgrading the products constantly. The above system structure must response the changeability and reconfigurability in time to effectively use the components and equipments in the