An Object Oriented Database for Information Management
in Computer Integrated Manufacturing
Willow Charles
Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) seeks to automate
both manufacturing and information within an organization. However, a number of
CIM’s have been reported to have difficulty in integrating the information module.
This research focuses on designing the manufacturing part-design database in an
object-oriented (OO) manner for rapid retrieval and extensibility of the part information.
The part database serves as the prime input to the manufacturing module which then
determines the part quantities, part types for production, part routings and overall
production volume. The OO database strictly follows the CORBA protocol and was tested
with a miniature CIM. The results indicate that an OO database is crucial to integrating
the information in a CIM given the fluctuating market demand for parts.
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