Five Year Vision for the FASD Prepared by Howard Bloom This white paper outlines the future status of the Division for the year 1997. State of the Economy The United States has been losing its competitive position in both foreign and domestic markets. The U.S. has been falling behind other countries in the production of goods for which we have been preeminent for fifty years. For example, the trade deficit in manufacturing has been consistently above the $100B level. Two reasons often cited for the trade deficit are the lack of internal cooperation among U.S. industry in manufacturing products and the fact that foreign trade barriers make it difficult to market products overseas. It has been shown that standards can facilitate economic interactions that require a high level of cooperation and coordination. Standards also help to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of the economy as well as the cost, quality and availability of products. However, governments are using standards to protect their domestic markets and to develop new international ones. Other countries are better organized and thus better able to dominate the international standards setting process, to the detriment of U.S. trade. In particular, the harmonization of European standards, which was completed in 1993, has not only make it harder for U.S. companies to trade in Europe, but has allowed the Europeans to take the lead in setting international standards. Standards have become more important due to our growing reliance on technology. The growing pace of technological change also drives the need for standards. The faster the advance of technologies, the greater the risk in R & D and product development. In fact it is now necessary to develop standards even before the actual products are made available to the customer. By the year 1997, U.S. industry has finally realized the importance of getting quality products to the market place in a time critical manner. The Concurrent Engineering methodology has finally taken hold. Companies have taken giant steps to breaking down the barriers between departments within the companies. Cultural changes have occurred that have encouraged staff to work together as teams in designing and implementing the processes required to manufacture "world class" products. Industry is demanding of the research community that technologies and systems be available that can be utilized in the product life cycle under the banner of concurrent engineering. In addition, the complex relationship between U.S. companies, both large and small, and the increased interaction with European and Japanese companies have made it clear that Manufacturing Data Interface Standards are needed to allow for all companies with their own cultural and vendor specific systems to work together. A new breed of engineers - Data Standards Technology Engineers - have arisen and university curriculum is still being developed to give a formal academic training. The concept of developing technical standards before the commercialization of the associated products has just taken hold of the U.S. industrial community. The data standards technology field is dealing with the development of tools and methods for how to implement technical standards that are accurate and useful and timely. Technology advances are occuring so rapidly that the previous standards activities can not keep up with the demand for technical standards. The world community realizes the importance of objective technical standards such as those embodied in manufacturing data interface standards and is putting more pressure on the international standards efforts to approve standards quickly so that international concurrent engineering process needs can be met. State of the NIST In the year 1997, the Factory Automation Systems Division has become the key focus at NIST for the development of Manufacturing Data Interface Standards. Over the period 1992 - 1997 the Division has worked within NIST to get wide acceptance of the technical merit of the program, both from the Director of NIST as well as the other laboratories outside MEL. Data Interface Standards have become the most visible standards effort at NIST and absorb more than 50% of all the standards activities by NIST employees. The NIST wide STRS budget in this area has reached $40M with an equivalent level of support by other government agencies. International/national standards policy has grabbed hold within the administration and DoC through NIST has become the government's lead agency in this arena. In addition to the Deputy Director, NIST now has two associate directors: (1) Measurement Science and Technology and (2) Standards Science and Technology. State of MEL The United States has been slow to react with a standards program in advanced manufacturing that could respond to the international needs. Many of the present activities continue to revolve around the standards for the types of manufacturing equipment that have been in use for the last thirty years. A new program that addresses the advanced manufacturing needs for the twenty-first century as defined in the National Critical Technologies Report published back in 1991 was created in FY94. There are four areas for standardization that needed immediate attention: Intelligent processing equipment, flexible computer integrated manufacturing, micro- and nanofabrication and systems management technologies. Many of the new standards that are needed are in the form of reference models, data exchange specifications, process models, and data models. It is only through these electronic data standards that the company economic interactions can be facilitated. MEL has established a new program in Advanced Manufacturing Standards Evaluation & Technology (AMSET). This program consists of three major elements: (a) Active role in developing required standards, (b) Leading role in developing the testing and evaluation methods to ensure that quality standards are developed and implemented by vendors, and (c) Performing research and development into the technologies required to develop the standards and implement the advanced manufacturing systems that conform to the standards. The program built upon the prevously implemented Automated Manufacturing Research Facility (AMRF) by adding new equipment and systems required for the advanced manufacturing standards development. This new facility was called the Advanced Manufacturing Standards Evaluation Facility (AMSEF). The first element, Standards Development, involves working closely with industry to identify the priorities for standardization and with the standards bodies to facilitate the development of such standards. Working under the auspices of ANSI, a U.S. industry driven standards policy in advanced manufacturing has been developed and used to drive international standards, with the cooperation of such major partners as the European Communities and Japan. As with the historical presence of NIST as the "Holder of the meter", MEL has taken on the role as the "Holder of the advanced manufacturing standards" which will often be in electronic data form. In addition, MEL has been working with industrial consortia (e.g. National Center for Manufacturing Science) to get an industry driven effort in developing the standards. Finally, MEL now serves as the "Holder of the Standard" by providing configuration management services for the various forms of the standards as they are being developed. The second element, Testing & Evaluation Methods, involves developing a full range of testing methods that will insure that the standards being developed satisfy the industry needs and that the vendors produce systems that will conform to these standards. In addition, because of the multitude of competing proposals for developing a given standard, a performance testing methodology is being implemented that will allow for technical decisions to be made over the best way a standard should be specified. NIST now serves as the first line of accreditation for the standard implementations. In addition, NIST then accredites other institutions to perform the conformance testing of vendor products. The third element, Technology Development, involves implementing the tools needed for developing the standards and for prototyping the systems for which the standards are being specified. The research and development includes such areas as information technology (i.e., information modeling, database technology, specification languages), sensor technology, intelligent machines technology, and advanced metrology. MEL is working closely with ANSI and all the standards bodies within ANSI that are involved with advanced manufacturing standards. MEL has signed a MOU with the appropriate standards organizations to provide the testing methodology and configuration control of the standards as appropriate. MEL has been working closely with the international standards organizations. MEL has been working closely with U.S. industry to identify needs and to facilitate the technology transfer of standards to industry. State of the Division In the year 1997, the Factory Automation Systems Division has become the key focus at NIST for the development of Manufacturing Data Interface Standards. Over the period 1992 - 1997 the Division has worked within NIST to get wide acceptance of the technical merit of the program, both from the Director of NIST as well as the other laboratories outside MEL. Data Interface Standards have become the most visible standards effort at NIST and absorb more than 50% of all the standards activities by NIST employees. It has been through the division's efforts that the focus of MEL's standards and technology programs has been reoriented around the AMSET Program as defined above. In the year 1997, the following statistics can be found in terms of the Factory Automation Systems Division: Mission Statement - The Factory Automation Systems Division maintains national (and in some cases international) standards for a variety of manufacturing data interfaces. It is responsible for developing and executing an accreditation program for vendor implementations of these standards. It is also responsible for developing manufacturing systems technologies that demonstrate how these standards can be implemented. Standards - The classes of manufacturing data interface standards for which the Division has the responsibility include the following types: CIM Architecture (Reference model and framework) OSI Standards for Industrial Applications Standards for Industrial Communications General Methodology for Definition of Application Data Application Data Database Systems Knowledge Based Techniques Standard Parts Libraries Application Languages Software Performance for CMMs Staffing - o There are now 100 employees, 80 of which are ZP, 10 ZS, 5 ZT, and 5 ZA. o The degree ratio of ZPs: 33% PhDs, 33% Masters, and 34% Bachelors. o Minorities (and women) make up 50% of technical staff. Funding - o The overall Division budget is $20M. o The STRS funding is $10M. Programs - o The four programs that the Division initiated in the early nineties - Design Methods, Product Data Sharing, Systems Integration, and Life Cycle Applications - have become the focus for the emerging Manufacturing Data Interface Standards Program. The AMSET paradigm has been implemented for each of these areas and is reflected in the types of facilities and research programs that are defined below. Facilities - o The AMRF has been totally rebuilt as part of the newly created AMSEF to be a STEP-based manufacturing machined parts facility based on the STEP production cell concept. There is an integrated network of design workstations, machine tools, coordinate measurement machines, and process planning/NC/Inspection programming systems all sharing information from a common database system. The MSI architecture has been implemented so that all process and production type data is also available. Given the design of a part stored using STEP, all the succeeding processes use either STEP or MANDATE (i.e. manufacturing management data such as scheduling and production information) defined databases to interact. o The National PDES Testbed testing facility is available for performing conformance testing and interoperability testing on any APs as they are defined. In addition, early validation testing capability is available through a broad range of toolkits available from industry. o The NPT Application Protocol Development Facility has been on-line for two years. This facility provides a broad range of tools to enable AP developers to quickly and efficiently define the AP. Emulator tools are available that make it easy to define application processes that can be utilized in this development effort. The Facility maintains the database of AICs (Application Interpretive Constructs) that are used to build new application protocols. o The Design Laboratory has evolved over the years into a facility where a wide range of design analysis tools and "design for x" tools have been integrated into a design workstation environment. A variety of CAD systems are available for use. All of these systems are integrated over the FASD network into the AMSEF. The design systems all have interfaces to STEP application protocols. A library of design knowledge for various applications is available for use. o The Design Engineering Laboratory consists of a collection of workstations, that build upon the Design Laboratory, but are dedicated to the development of prototype design tools for the consumer product industry. The first product line that is being studied in the laboratory is apparel design. o The Product Data Exchange Network (PDEN) has been available for three years. Demonstrations are available to illustrate how different life-cycle processes can utilize product data. o The Enterprise Integration Case Tool Facility has been available for the past three years. A variety of information modeling tools for examining functional, informational, resource, organizational and other views of an enterprise are installed. Data dictionaries and database management systems are being used to interface the modeling information to actual database applications. o The Computer-Aided Factory Engineering (CAFE) laboratory has been available for three years. This laboratory contains a collection of workstations with a variety of case tools and software systems that are being integrated into a CAFE workstation. The laboratory promotes the application of computer technology to the design and engineering of factories. Research - o Level 4 STEP - The AMSEF is now set up as a laboratory where the technology issues relating to a knowledgebase implementation of STEP can be researched. Key issues include (1) what knowledge is needed about each process and how to gather this knowledge through people and sensors, (2) how to manage the product data in such an environment, (3) How to represent product knowledge, (4) efficient use of product knowledge through object oriented database methods, etc. o Concurrent Design - Given the concern over time-to-market, the concurrent design issues must be resolved. Now that STEP can handle knowledge representation, issues that need to be addressed are: (1) how to make trade-off decisions between the different manufacturing processes as they relate to design, (2) how to efficiently represent design knowledge, (3) how does a designer, or design team, really make decisions and can this be automated, etc. o Design Engineering - It has become evident that the U.S. must develop industry-wide capacity to product high quality and high style products that are responsive to consumer demands. Research into a new discipline, design engineering, is being conducted on how design technologies can be integrated. A part of this effort involves the extensions to STEP for the apparel industry. Efforts aimed at developing pattern languages that can be incorporated into the design process are being pursued. In addition information over all the processes of the apparel life cycle are being integrated back into the design process. o Information Modeling - It has become clear that information modeling is essential to the development of data exchange standards. Research is being performed into what are the essential components of information modeling, how can different modeling methodologies work together, and how does an information modeling representation interface to a data dictionary for implementing the actual database system. There is tremendous activity in the standards community to develop the set of information modeling standards required to address these research issues. o Intelligent Systems - Now that the AMRF has been upgraded to become the AMSEF, research has been directed towards developing "smart" systems for manufacturing engineering. Areas covered include intelligent scheduling, generative process planning, automated NC programming and automated Inspection programming from a design specification. o Shared Databases - Major activities are being carried out to determine the effectiveness of the shared database environment for supporting the manufacturing systems. All the new information technology standards are demonstratable through commercial or prototype systems. o Conformance Testing - Because of the importance of the data interface standards, research into conformance testing methods and upgrades to application protocol framework techniques are being used to extend the STEP efforts into other related data standards areas. o Systems Integration - New techniques for developing interface specifications are being developed. The initial work in Manufacturing Systems Integration is being extended into the Enterprise Integration area. Frameworks for enterprise integrations are being evaluated for efficiency and completeness to cover a broad spectrum of enterprises. The enterprise case tools are being used to develop new interfaces and functional specifications for future standards. Research into the automatic generation of resource specifications from the basic enterprise functional specifications is being performed. o Automated Program Generation - Research into the automatic generation of programs for manufacturing processes from design specifications is being performed. In addition, research into develop the design specification itself from user requirements is being explored. It is felt that "tolerances" play an important role in the automation procedure from the user to the equipment programs. o Factory Engineering - Research into Computer-Aided Factory Engineering (CAFE) is being performed to develop technologies, methods, tools, and standards for Factory Engineering Systems.