Shop Floor Communication (CAMX) - IPC-254X

Factory Information Systems (FIS) form the nervous system of an enterprise, analysing data and delivering information to the machines and people who need to make information-based decisions. These systems provide a bi-directional flow of information between the factory floor and the rest of the enterprise. The National Electronics Manufacturing Initiative's (NEMI) Plug & Play Factory project addressed some critical problems involving factory information system deployment on the electronics manufacturing factory floor. The Plug & Play Factory project focused on the development of the standards necessary to achieve interoperability, or plug-and-play capability, on the factory floor. Activities were comprised of three areas:

• Definition of standards for a software framework that will allow interoperability between equipment produced by different vendors.
• Development of process-specific, machine communication interface standards for surface mount equipment. These standards will leverage the Generic Equipment Model (GEM) specification developed for semiconductor equipment and web-based standards for data transmission.
• Establishment of a test-bed manufacturing line to prove out the concepts developed by the project.