Framework for Integrating Production System Models and Product Family Models

As the demand for product customization increases globally, companies must increasingly manufacture individually configured products, which stresses the traditional business processes and manufacturing systems. Although previous research indicates potentials in integrating product and process models, few practical implementations of this are found partly due to lacking systems integration. This paper proposes a framework for integrating existing information repositories for manufacturing system and product family model information. By integrating this information, manufacturing information can improve the product configuration process and product configuration information can support the manufacturing process.