Automating Manufacturing Operations: The Penultimate Approach

Industrial automation has gone from simple pre-programmed machine instructions to complex general manufacturing, rules-based automation procedures. Unlike other books on industrial automation, this book focuses in on 'Manufacturing Operations Systems' (MOPS) in general. It describes their development, implementation and successful management.

The book especially addresses the all-important human-machine interface: computer-based manufacturing procedures that are understandable to both computers and humans. Consequently, a language for writing procedures is discussed. It is a language based on Chinese grammar, which is the simplest of all complex human languages.

Finally, the design of procedures is discussed as a hierarchy of complexity, along with exception handling at each level. Readers with basic experience using non-procedural automation can greatly benefit from the productivity gains possible from procedural-based automation. They will learn how to create procedural language that is as close to natural language as possible.

The reader also will benefit from:

• A brief overview and history of Manufacturing Operations (MOPS)
• Coverage of manufacturing units and regulatory and sequential control
• Discussion of Data recording from MOPs and tasks
• An overview of Automating Manufacturing Tasks with DCS, PLC, and PCS
• Guidelines for setting up an Automated MOPS (AMOPS) project
• Guidelines for validating an AMOPS for regulated industries
• Examples of applications for both continuous and batch manufacturing