Real-time information capturing and integration framework of the internet of manufacturing things

Currently, the typical challenges that manufacturing enterprises faced are the lack of timely, accurate and consistent information of manufacturing things (resources) during manufacturing execution. Real-time information visibility and traceability allows decision makers to make better-informed shop-floor decisions. In this article, a real-time information capturing and integration architecture of the internet of manufacturing things (IoMT) is presented to provide a new paradigm by extending the techniques of IoT to manufacturing field. Under this architecture and its key components, the manufacturing things such as operators, machines, pallets, materials etc. can be embedded with sensors, they can interact with each other. Considering the challenges of processing a huge amount of real-time data into useful information and exchange it among the heterogeneous application systems, a Real-time Manufacturing Information Integration Service (RTMIIS) has been designed to achieve seamless dual-way connectivity and interoperability among enterprise layer, workshop floor layer and machine layer. Finally, a near-life scenario has been used to illustrate the proof-of-concept application of the proposed IoMT.