Modules of FMS Control System

FMS control system should have modules for the following functions to be efficiently carried out in a distributed control environment:

• Production scheduling to schedule several production operations of the FMS  depend on the parts to be entered at the RJE (remote job entry) terminal.
• Transport management to take care of the workpiece & tool movements in the FMS under the direct control of FMS supervisor.
• Tool management to arrange the availability of the right tool in right condition at the right time in the right place. It provides the essential tool offsets required by the various programmes.
• Simulation is a powerful tool that can be used for the design purpose in addition to for knowing the condition of the current status of the production operations in FMS.
• Production control co-ordinating several production operations of the FMS modules through direct communications along their controllers (CNC, AGV, etc.).
• Machine diagnostics to get any malfunctions of the FMS modules.
• Managing part programs, data files of tools and workpieces and their storage location.
• Maintenance planning depend on the feedback on the health of the FMS components to correctly plan the maintenance schedules.

Some operations illustrated above are time critical and therefore need to be done on real time basis, when many functions are not time critical and therefore can be done while the processing time is available. For this reason, generally a distributed control is preferred with the real time control done along a slave computer dedicated for the application.