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Production Environment

The figure shows a description of the production environment as a logical structure with the main objects, machines/equipment, interim storage/buffer, terminals, and time models

The Logical Structure of Production

The ISA defines an equipment hierarchy with elements as a hierarchical structure. It establishes not only hierarchy of production but also an allocation to the level model (e.g., company management level or production management level). This perception is problematic because, on the one hand, different terms and hierarchical levels are used in different production environments (e.g., discrete production/continual process) and, on the other hand, one perception (logical and/or geographic) of the company is often not sufficient. This means that although it is advisable to use the ISA scheme as a support, the number and names of the hierarchical levels should be set flexibly. Along with a logical/geographic perception, other viewpoints also should be included. It therefore should be possible to classify machines and equipment not only according to the factories and production divisions but also, for example, according to maintenance divisions. The maintenance employees thus have their own perception of the production, one best suited to their work

The machines and equipment, production stocks and buffer, and time models described below are independent objects of the data model, whose elements can be linked with the logical structure.