A working model of a manufacturing enterprise with Internet control

This paper outlines the development of a working model of a manufacturing e nterprise, consisting of a manufacturing system, a warehouse and a customer . A model train is used to ship the goods between the three stages, The mod el can be viewed and controlled interactively on the Internet. This means t hat the user can explore different operating strategies to optimise the per formance of individual components or the manufacturing enterprise as a whol e, in terms of delivery time and total cost. The manufacturing enterprise m odel is built using LEGO and controlled by Lab VIEW The complete model and its controlling software was developed by a group of engineering students a s an undergraduate project. The paper also discusses the educational advant ages of developing and using such a system.