Towards a manufacturing metamodel

Manufacturing involves a complex integration of materials, processes, facilities, people, information and decisions. A vast array of models have been proposed, developed, and used to support decision-making for both design and operation of manufacturing systems. Historically, however, manufacturing system models have been developed to answer narrow, specific questions. The consequence has been great difficulty in assuring the consistency of decisions reached based on different models of the same manufacturing system. In this paper, we propose a first step toward developing a comprehensive model of manufacturing systems, or a metamodel. A metamodel would provide tremendous benefits in application by assuring the consistency of the data and data-based assumptions driving the variety of models that already exist. We propose a meta-model, discuss its application in the context of designing manufacturing systems supported by automated guided vehicles, and present a case study based on a real implementation of the metamodel.