Case study: Industrial communications architectures and their application in a garment computer integrated manufacturing cell

The traditional structure of manufacturing has significantly restricted the effectiveness of integration which can be supported by existing computer systems. An essential requirement for factory-wide integration is reliable communication among various components and programmable devices on the shop floor; this task is far from trivial given the wide variety of incompatible equipment and proprietary networks. Research into networks for manufacturing has resulted in several systems which are compatible with the Open Systems Interconnection reference model. This paper presents a complete review of major industrial networking approaches. A comparative study on industrial communication networks is conducted. The communication requirements of an Automatic Sewing Cell are analyzed and an appropriate protocol is selected. Finally, a set of primitive services that are considered essential for CIM cells in the garment industry is proposed.