Service-based manufacturing systems: modelling and control

Abstract

In service-based manufacturing systems, functionalities are independently developed as services and a central engine orchestrates their integration. As industrial processes tend to be very large, and performance and productivity are expected to be maximised, there is a constant interest in providing (in-advance) quality guarantees for services interactions, which contrasts with the usual non-automated workflow design. This paper provides an alternative to enhance service orchestration capabilities using supervisory control techniques. Initially, each component (atomic and composite activities) belonging to an orchestration language is modelled as a state-machine. Then, activity models are properly combined and composed, reproducing orchestrated workflows. Finally, supervisory control is used to calculate an optimal version of the orchestrator. Practical implications of handling large state-spaces are discussed and examples are provided.

Keywords:

• automated manufacturing systems
• service-oriented manufacturing systems
• formal modelling
• discrete event systems
• service orchestration

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Marcelo Teixeira http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1008-7838

Notes

1 By Simple Permutation we mean the operation that organises n elements from a set into n-positions structures, such that they differ only by their ordering, e.g. for $F=\{F_1,F_2\}$, with $F_1=\{f_1,f_2\}$ and $F_2=\left\{f_3\right\}$, $P^T\left(F\right)=\{F_1\times F_2,F_2\times F_1\}=\left\{\right\{f_1{f}_3,f_2{f}_3\},\{f_3{f}_1,f_3{f}_2\left\}\right\}$.