Factory-wide network

In this case, the high costs of a factory-wide network is only justified if the real process monitoring data of the manufactured molded parts can be used as a basis of cavity pressure and cavity temperature. The collection of pure machine data such as cycle time, however, does not justify the effort. 

The principle of a factory-wide network of production machines, however, allows a number of other applications. It is, for example, possible to access the status of a production plant anywhere in the world via the Internet - an aspect that should not be underestimated in the course of globalization. In addition, information about each production order, such as the causes of machine standstill, can be entered and recorded by the employees in production using so-called handheld personal digital assistants (PDA) via wireless local area networks (LAN). This information is finally collected and documented on the central server through the network. 

A factory-wide networked production monitoring is part of an overall production planning and provides all information on a database, which is necessary for a comprehensive analysis of the entire production. Thus, the management is able to plan production in an optimal way and at the same time to react accordingly to production failures and disturbances. Figure 5.22 shows the structure of such a system. This is based on a stand-alone web server. Every authorized user can access it using a standard web browser. The process information can be collected without expensive and time-consuming connections via machine host computer interfaces. 

Computer network and database management systems are supporting systems for CIMS. The computer network consists of a number of computers (called nodes in the network) and network devices, as well as network software. It is used to connect different computers together to enable the communication of data between different computers. The computer network can be classified as a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN). LAN normally means a restricted area network, such as in a building, factory, or campus. WAN means a much wider area network, across a city or internationally. Network technology is developing rapidly. The Internet concept has changed manu-... 

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