A formal skill model to enable reconfigurable assembly systems

ABSTRACT

As assembly systems move into the era of mass customisation, the complexity of design processes, (re)configurations and operations rises. Well-structured data are key in keeping this complexity manageable. Here to, this paper presents a multidimensional formal skill model designed to deliver generic descriptions of needs and capacities with skills as the connector between products, processes and resources. The model formalises resource structures in relation to the processes they master and products they can produce. This paper discusses the case-based evaluation in a reconfigurable assembly system and highlights the added-value of a skill-based modelling approach. The presented formal model combines concepts coming from both offline and online modelling perspectives and allows for various applications and levels of detail. The resource structures embedded in the prerequisites of a skill enable matchmaking of resources for workspace design and reconfigurations. The mapping of the model to standardised ISA-95 models couples production needs to the resources allowing for more optimal production planning, control and a structured interface between enterprise and control systems. The possibility to couple states to the assembly environment allows for optimal runtime orchestration.

KEYWORDS:

• Flexible assembly
• mass customisation
• reconfigurable assembly system
• skill-based engineering
• formal modelling

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author, L. Van De Ginste, upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lauren Van De Ginste

Ing. Lauren Van De Ginste graduated in 2018 as ‘Master of Electrical Engineering Technology – Main Subject Automation’ at Ghent University, Belgium. Since August 2018 he conducts research as a PhD-student within the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design at Ghent University. His PhD-research focuses on the development of a methodology for flexibility evaluation of assembly workstations taking into account the enormous diversity and possibilities in configurations of machines, tools and auxiliary devices used to produce or assemble products.

Alexander De Cock

Alexander De Cock received the degree of ‘Master of Science: Engineering Sciences: Electronics and Information Technology’ in 2012 from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and completed his PhD on optimal experiment design for the identification of structured nonlinear systems at the department ELEC in 2017. Afterwards he worked a year and half as post-doctoral bio-statistician at the National MS Centre Melsbroek where he studied risk factors for cognitive decline in MS and the impact of cognition on rehabilitation in MS. Currently, he works as a senior research engineer in the CodesignS IM Corelab at the Flanders Make research centre. His current interests are meta-modelling and discrete optimisation in the context of flexible assembly systems.

Axl Van Alboom

Ing. Axl Van Alboom graduated in 2019 as ‘Master of Electrical Engineering Technology – Main Subject Automation’ at Ghent University, Belgium. Since September 2019 he supports research within the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design at Ghent University. His focus lies on the design and implementation of production and decision support tools by use of modern techniques (linked data and graph databases).

Stijn Huysentruyt

Ing. Stijn Huysentruyt received his master's degree in industrial automation at Howest in 2013. He started his career in the private sector where he took up roles in the fields of industrial automation and healthcare services. Since the end of 2019 he supports research within the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design at Ghent University. Beside his technical team lead and project coordination roles, he endeavours generic base models for discrete manufacturing to enable a full system integration.

El-Houssaine Aghezzaf

Professor El-Houssaine Aghezzaf is professor of industrial systems engineering and operations research at the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Ghent University. He holds a master of science in applied mathematics (1989) and a Ph.D. in operation research (1992), prepared at the Center for Operations Research and Econometrics, both from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). He is currently heading the department of Industrial Systems Engineering & Product Design (ISyEPD). His main research interests are in the development and implementation of integrated robust optimisation solutions for the design and operations planning and control problems arising in manufacturing and logistics systems and in utility networks. He is member of the executive committee of Belgian Society of Operations Research (ORBEL), member of International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC) – Manufacturing and Logistics Systems. He is often invited to act as an expert to evaluate research projects or activities of research of centres active in the domain of Industrial Engineering and Operations Research.

Johannes Cottyn

Prof. Dr. Ing. Johannes Cottyn received his master's degree in industrial automation at Howest in 2003. He added a postgraduate in Informatics and a pre-doctoral degree in computer science in 2006. In 2012, he obtained his PhD in engineering sciences for industrial management and operations research at Ghent University. Since 2013 he is assistant professor in industrial automation and coordinator of the automation research division at the department of Industrial Systems Engineering (ISyE) and Product Design of Ghent University. He is a member of the ISA community, promoting a national/international network of automation professionals. He actively participates in the strategic research centre Flanders Make and got appointed in 2018 as core lab manager for ISyE in the Flanders Make research cluster Flexible Assembly. His main research interests lie in the combination and integration of industrial control & software systems (e.g. MES) and manufacturing excellence best practices (e.g. Lean). He has gathered in-depth expertise in research and practice by being involved in various research and industrial projects. His current research focuses on the optimal design and management of human-robot collaborative assembly workplaces leveraging on flexible automation concepts, context-aware operator support systems and production digital twin technology in the make sector.