Virtual Factory Framework: key enabler for future manufacturing

The global market with increasing competition calls for new strategies strengthening the future manufacturing systems. This paper presents the underlying models and ideas at the foundation of a new conceptual framework for the next generation Virtual Factory implementation. The approach fosters four pillars: a standard extensible data model; decoupled functional modules, based on an object oriented Virtual Factory paradigm; an event driven paradigm at the core of abstract objects management; the integration of knowledge at different layers for the decoupled functional modules. The implementation of a Virtual Factory based on the presented framework points to the usefulness when developing future manufacturing systems.