Modeling Process Platform-based Production Configuration

This paper discusses the rationale of process platform-based production configuration in mass customization production. A multilevel system of nested colored object-oriented Petri nets (PNs) with changeable structures is developed to model the configuration of production processes. The obtained process for a new member of a product family involves both manufacturing and assembly processes for the parts and assemblies. The modeling formalism includes a resource net, manufacturing net, assembly net, process net, and net nesting. Theses definitions are used to specify the behaviors of manufacturing resource employment, the manufacturing processes of a part family, the assembly processes of an assembly family, the abstract production process of a family of end products as well as detailed production processes of end products.