|
|
Article: The quest for open systems: some believe that true factory open-architecture computing may finally be just around the corner. Here are four criteria for identifying it. (Controlling The Manufacturing Process).
- Article from:
- Quality
- Article date:
- March 1, 2002
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
No one doubts the enormous benefits that open-architecture computing holds for quality control systems and continuous improvement programs. Using an open computing network, a supervisory control system would be able to feed all production data directly into a database that anyone in a factory could access. People in the company would be able to extract the data they need and import them into software packages best suited for the work that they are performing.
Consider the ramifications in a high-volume production line producing plastic automobile fenders. If inspection by a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) was to reveal a problem with a feature on a routine ...