Data modeling and workflow analysis of cyber-manufacturing systems

Cyber-Manufacturing System (CMS) is a vision for the factory of the future, where physical manufacturing resources and processes are integrated with computational workflows to provide on-demand, adaptive, and scalable manufacturing services. In CMS, functional manufacturing components in a factory floor are digitized and encapsulated in production services; and are accessible by users throughout the network. CMS utilizes data-centric technologies to program manufacturing activities in factory floors. Leveraging advanced technologies, CMS can provide robust solutions to achieve better manufacturing agility, flexibility, scalability, and sustainability than from traditional factories. While data is the main driver of the manufacturing activities in CMS, the lack of (i) a generic data model of explicit representation of the entities and stakeholders in CMS and (ii) workflow definition and analysis for service-orientated functionalities and manufacturing intelligence of CMS is still hindering the implementation of a fully executable CMS. To address such problems, this paper (i) formalizes a data modeling of CMS using Entity-Relationship (E-R) diagram, (ii) presents the definition and analysis of workflows along with data pipelines and Extract/Transform/Load (ETL) processes that automate the entire lifecycle activities in CMS and (iii) deploys the proposed data model and workflows in a Web-based application, and (iv) tests the functionality of this application with an industrial case and eventually validates the proposed data model and workflows.