Affiliations: [a] Dirección de Investigación, Institución Universitaria Salazar y Herrera, Medellin, Colombia | [b] Centro de Calidad y Manufactura, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Monterrey, México | [c] Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales, Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Valencia, España | [d] Departamento de Mecatrónica y Automatización, Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Ciudad de México, México
Correspondence:
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Corresponding author: Mauricio Hincapié, Dirección de Investigación, Institución Universitaria Salazar y Herrera, CR 70 No 52-49, Medellin, Colombia. Tel.: +574 448 87 02; E-mail:e.hincapie@iush.edu.co
Abstract: The automation processes industry has become increasingly expensive, which
is why some small and medium sized enterprises are incapable of buying
machine tools with automatic systems. This means that their processes are
manual in many cases, and as a result they often have to rework their
developed products due to the lack of precision and efficiency in their
production processes. Considering that current manufacturing systems with
variable machining and turning centers are gradually replacing dedicated
systems for medium lot size production, the production systems' basic
element, the machine tool, must be capable of working at high speeds with
precision, and it must be reconfigurable. These systems must also be
compatible and convertible in order to create economic benefits for
customers. This article describes a specific software architecture designed
to record all the data, information and knowledge concerning manufacturing
systems. The software allows for the creation of a new knowledge database
and works with it in the reconfiguration of machine tools depending on the
rules, requirements and parameters needed to effectively modify production
processes or products.
Keywords: Reconfiguration management system, machine tool reconfiguration, unified modeling language
