Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing

The book presents a coherent description of distributed manufacturing, providing a solid base for further research on the subject as well as smart implementations in companies. It provides a guide for those researching and working in a range of fields, such as smart manufacturing, cloud computing, RFID tracking, distributed automation, cyber physical production and global design anywhere, manufacture anywhere solutions. Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing anticipates future advances in the fields of embedded systems, the Internet of Things and cyber physical systems, outlining how adopting these innovations could rapidly bring about improvements in key performance indicators, which could in turn generate competition pressure by rendering successful business models obsolete. In laying the groundwork for powerful theoretical models, high standards for the homogeneity and soundness of the suggested setups are applied. The book especially elaborates on the upcoming competition in online manufacturing operations and respective control procedures.

By outlining encapsulation and evolving decision-making principles, Foundations & Principles of Distributed Manufacturing fully conceptualizes the view of manufacturing networks as sets of loosely coupled interacting smart factory objects. Moreover, the book provides concrete approaches to a number of future fields, where distributed manufacturing might be applied. Both researchers and professionals will profit from the authors’ broad experience in Distributed Manufacturing and Fractal Enterprise implementations, where they initiated and completed a number of successful research projects: within the global Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) scheme, within the European Research Area frameworks as well as national contexts, and both in industry and at leading research institutions. This background ensures well-founded theory on one hand and valuable practical results on the other in a fascinating area that is still under intensive research. Readers will acquire essential insights as well as useful guidance for categorizing and specifying extended distributed manufacturing solutions and their professional implementations.

Hermann Kühnle joined the Otto-von-Guericke-University of Magdeburg as a Full University Professor for “Factory Operations and Production Systems” and Executive Director of the Institute for „Ergonomics, Manufacturing Systems and Automation in 1994. From 1994 to 2001 he also was Foundation- and Executive Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation IFF, Magdeburg.

Since 1995, Prof. Dr. Kühnle is the speaker of the research field "Advanced Production systems in Saxony-Anhalt" and board member of several companies and venture capital groups. From 1980 to 1994 he worked for Fraunhofer Institute for Production Engineering and Automation IPA in Stuttgart, on Material Flow Planning, Enterprise Planning and Organisation, Computer Integrated Manufacturing, since 1991 as Research Director and Head of the division Enterprise Planning and Control“ where he was in charge of the Management of a number of international, national and regional research programmes and projects as well as research implementation projects with leading national and international companies. He is author of numerous editions, publications, lectures notes and congress contributions.

Günter Bitsch is the founder and CEO of the software provider and consultancy unit becos GmbH in Stuttgart, Germany, which successfully promotes and implements cutting-edge production planning and control software solutions in specialised sectors of sheet metal and metal processing fabrication. His expertise includes all organisational backgrounds tightly linked to software implementation solutions and all related qualification and coaching subjects as well. Since more than two decades he is known as a leading expert for MES and scheduling solutions in world-class companies. Moreover, he is engaged in academic work, especially with theoretical studies in the coaching field. Important milestones have been published in a number of books and research papers. In 2010 he was promoted as a Ph.D. at the University of Siegen. Since 2013 he teaches at Reutlingen University as a honorary professor on the field of Manufacturing Execution Systems and Production Planning and Control.