Implementation of capability matchmaking software facilitating faster production system design and reconfiguration planning

Smart manufacturing calls for rapidly responding production systems which help the manufacturing companies to operate efficiently in a highly dynamic environment. Currently, the system design and reconfiguration planning are manual processes which rely heavily on the designers' expertise and tacit knowledge to find feasible system configuration solutions by comparing the characteristics of the product to the technical properties of the available resources. Rapid responsiveness requires new computer-aided intelligent design and planning solutions that would reduce the time and effort put into system design, both in brownfield and greenfield scenarios. This article describes the implementation of a capability matchmaking approach and software which automatizes the matchmaking between product requirements and resource capabilities. The interaction of the matchmaking system with external design and planning tools, through its web service interface, is explained and illustrated with a case example. The proposed matchmaking approach supports production system design and reconfiguration planning by providing automatic means for checking if the existing system already fulfils the new product requirements, and/or for finding alternative resources and resource combinations for specific product requirements from large search spaces, e.g. from global resource catalogues.