Manufacturing Analysis Tool Architecture Decoupling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Modern manufacturing system analysis tools are often highly integrated and tied to specific computing platforms, making widespread enterprise deployment difficult and costly, and cross-application utilization cumbersome, leading to duplication of efforts and costs.
Innovation Solution
A manufacturing system performance analysis tool software architecture with a modeling isolation layer and multiple analysis modules, featuring an application program interface (API) for user access, internal object constructors, and analysis module interfaces, decouples end-user applications from underlying analysis capabilities, enabling modular and library-based design for extensibility and platform independence.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If manufacturing system analysis tools are highly integrated and consolidated, then user interface and modeling capabilities are unified, but the tools become tied to specific computing platforms making widespread deployment difficult and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The software architecture is segmented into distinct layers: a platform-independent presentation layer containing the consolidated user interface, a business logic layer with analysis capabilities, and a data access layer. This segmentation allows the user interface to remain unified while the underlying implementation can adapt to different computing platforms through the intermediate business logic layer.
Solution Approach 2:
An intermediary layer consisting of abstract base classes and interface definitions is introduced between the user interface and the analysis modules. This intermediary layer decouples the platform-specific implementation details from the unified user interface, enabling the same interface to work across multiple platforms without requiring the entire tool to be highly integrated.
2Adaptability or versatility
If analysis capabilities are highly integrated into end-user applications, then sophisticated what-if capabilities are available, but cross-application utilization becomes cumbersome and duplication of efforts and costs occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The analysis capabilities are designed as universal, standalone modules that can be utilized by multiple different applications and disciplines. The modular architecture with clearly defined interfaces allows the same analysis engine to serve manufacturing engineers, operations managers, and other users with different application needs without requiring separate integrated tools for each discipline.
Solution Approach 2:
The core analysis capabilities are extracted from highly integrated end-user applications and placed into separate, independently deployable modules. This extraction allows the sophisticated what-if analysis capabilities to be shared across multiple applications and disciplines, eliminating duplication while maintaining the advanced functionality needed for complex manufacturing system analysis.
Data Source
AI summary
A software tool for manufacturing system performance analysis includes modeling and analysis functions. A modeling isolation layer provides user access to the analysis capabilities through object-based model building and analysis invocations. Various model, performance and higher level analyses are performed through analysis modules kept separate from any end-user application programs by the modeling isolation layer.