A generic architecture for factory activity control

Today's manufacturing companies must be capable of manufacturing a high variety of customer-specific products, usually with short delivery times, against low costs. This implies that both the inaccuracy of the manufacturing information and the uncertainty with regard to the progress in production are high. In order to guarantee the in-time completion of the production orders, in combination with an efficient use of the manufacturing resources, an adequate short-term coordination between the technological and the logistic functions is required. The thesis presents a generic architecture for Factory Activity Control, which enables an integral control of all the manufacturing activities on the operational level. In addition, the architecture offers a structure for the management of the manufacturing information.