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Technical Objectives
Integration of a set of web tools
into a collaborative specification and design environment.
This will allow customers, suppliers, system integrators and
sub-contractors to communicate easily, quickly and in a standardised
format. It will also allow all the participants to have an
active role in the specification and design of the system.
Provision of industrial requirements
for the collaborative e-space.
The web space will allow the input and acquisition of data
for the different process steps, organisations and decision
levels. This will be used to generate a full list of the industrial
requirements.
Evaluation of the State-of-the-Art
and roadmapping of the next generation assembly system concepts.
A full assessment of current practices and methods is essential
to the successful development of an improved system.
Development of knowledge and requirement
acquisition methods.
This will consist of tools and methods for the formulation,
capture and analysis of assembly system requirements.
Development of knowledge models and
mapping mechanisms.
These will allow the user requirements to be directly converted
into the design configuration of the modular assembly cells.
Development of web based tools for
the on-line negotiation of system requirements and trade-off
analysis.
These tools will enable the system/program, the suppliers
and the system integrators to identify contradictory, ambiguous
or missing information and to resolve the problem. This will
necessarily involve all participants and thus iterations of
trade-offs will ensure the optimal solution is produced.
Development of design aid tools.
This will aid the suppliers and system integrators in the
design of solutions and offer reduced overall time as well
as heavily reducing the man hour effort required to produce
and investigate design options.
Development of tools and methodologies
to model and assess the system design generated.
These tools will allow for designs to be modelled and visualised
and the performance assessed. This will allow the benefits/drawbacks
of any potential design to be realised before commissioning.
Development of feedback mechanism
enabling the modification of model.
This mechanism will essentially enable design iterations at
the later stages of the cycle and ensure that the system is
fully optimised for the situation.
Pilot implementation of the E-Race
e-space.
A full test and validation scenario is required to prove the
concept and ensure the capabilities of the system before full
implementation.
Evaluation and benchmarking of benefits
resulting from E-Race.
Full assessment of the test conducted above, this will be
used for sales and marketing as well as future improvements
of the system.
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