Modeling an e-based real-time quality control information system in distributed manufacturing shops

In a distributed manufacturing shop (DMS), factories of various levels of manufacturing capabilities are equipped with diverse types of machines and tools and are scattered around many geographically different locations. Because of such geographical diversity, the quality control of sub-assemble products (SAP) is of great importance to ensure a high level of production quality. To address the challenges of DMS management, manufacturers need to access real-time operational information captured from multiple locations. A real-time quality control information system (RTQCIS) can help control the flow of qualityrelated information among shop floors in the production network. This paper suggests a unique design of RTQCIS based on a new mathematical model. This model concentrates on converting multi-attribute quality measurements into a quality value corresponding to each entity in the quality space. To validate the proposed approach a prototype e-RTQCIS–DMS is developed and applied to subcontractors of an automobile company. 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.