Building the CIM, not an other Babel Tower

Abstract

Facing the rapidly growing complexity of manufacturing systems , RENAULT started a CIM programme aiming at specifying an integrating infrastructure allowing to limit strongly the manufacturing system complexity and to satisfy the company objectives of TOTAL QUALITY, FLEXIBILITY , PRODUCTIVITY and COST OPTIMIZATION. This programme is essentially based on two major activities which are STANDARDIZATION and RESEARCH .The standardization activity consisted to select standard profiles and services applicable in the manufacturing area. After an evaluation phase RENAULT selected UNIX and MAP 3.0. The research activity consists to defining an Integrating Infrastructure , of course comprising communication standards, but also including the definition of integrated standard data formats, application constructs (building blocks) and high level interfaces . This research activity is undertaken in relation with the European ESPRIT programme and includes cooperations in CNMA, DELTA 4 and VOICE projects such as described in this paper.