Early alert cockpits for changeable manufacturing systems

Within this paper a concept for an early alert cockpit will be presented which is one of the first results out of an ongoing German research project with eleven industrial and science partners. Target of the research project is, to enable small and medium sized enterprises to plan, build and run changeable assembly systems. The challenge is to develop methods and tools for the planning, evaluation and monitoring of all resources and components of the assembly systems. Special emphasis is placed on the dependencies between the structure of assembly systems and the provision and flow of materials. The early alert cockpit complements the existing methods for production control and supports the process for changing of assembly systems in signaling rising needs for changes.