Effective industrial modeling for high-tech systems: The example of Happy Flow

In the design of high-tech systems like copiers, wafer steppers and televisions, modeling plays an important role. However, not all developed models are industrially successful. It would be very beneficial if guidelines were available on how to create industrially effective models that support the system architects and speed up the multi-disciplinary design of high-tech machines. In this paper, we describe a very successful industrial model in the context of the design of copiers. The model is developed for the design of the paper transport system (the mechanical layout of the paper track, the schedule of print jobs, sensors, actuators, etc.) in a multi-functional office copier. As most other activities in the printer are synchronized to the paper transport system, this design issue is at the heart of the overall design and has a major influence on the total functioning of the machine. The so-called Happy Flow model is based on kinematic modeling and its generic elements are not restricted to copiers only. Its main ideas are applicable to a much wider range of mechatronic products. It is important to learn from such instances of successful industrial models. The aim of this paper is to identify the success factors of this particular model, which forms a first step towards a more systematic method on how to construct industrial effective models. This work has been carried out as part of the Boderc project under the responsibility of the Embedded Systems Institute. This project is partially supported by the Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs under the Senter TS program.