Leveraging Manufacturing Apps: A Modular Framework For Capturing & Packaging Manufacturing Process Logic

The manufacturing landscape is experiencing a paradigm shift, transitioning from an era of mass production to a more consumer-orientated mass customisation model. However, this transition and a broader shift in industry practices have introduced more sophisticated challenges. One significant challenge is the need for more modular and flexible software development methodologies to enable easily reconfigurable production lines. Compounding this is the lack of interoperability between different Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and the loss of shop-floor knowledge, which widens the skills gaps. To address these challenges, this paper presents Manufacturing Apps as a hardware-agnostic, digital solution capable of capturing manufacturing process logic and knowledge in a modular and reusable manner, enabling its effective reuse. By formalising the concept of Manufacturing Apps, this work provides general models and a methodology that enables developers to easily capture, reuse, and deploy process-specific knowledge. A robotic drilling process was selected as a case study, which formed the basis of the validation scenario presented.