WORKSHOP: PRISM Symposium on Integration, Networking, and the Next Decade; August 9-11, 2001; West Lafayette, Indiana

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

This symposium's primary objective is to identify research issues that transform the traditional industrial engineering environment to a new kind of industrial engineering work and services considered as e-Work. The scope of e-Work includes the collaborative computer-supported activities and communication-supported operations in highly distributed organizations of humans and/or robots or autonomous software agents such as agent-based manufacturing, workflow and enterprise modeling, and middleware development. The premise is that without effective e-Work, the potential of emerging electronic work activities such as virtual manufacturing, e-supply chain, and e-commerce cannot be competitively materialized. This award provides partial support of the symposium and participants' expenses during a two and one half day workshop at Purdue University on the past, present, and next frontier in the research direction of Production, Robotics, and Integration Software for Manufacturing/Management (PRISM). This meeting will bring together previous and current PRISM researchers, industry practitioners who have experience in computer-oriented collaborative work, and sponsors who have implemented enhanced technologies to compare ideas, experiences, and challenges. The workshop will develop research guidance by survey review of previous and current research and through panel discussions on advanced production research for the next decade. The aim is towards solutions in seven areas: (1) engineering and design collaboration, (2) distributed models of networked enterprises, (3) assembly and inspection technology, (4) agent-based manufacturing and service systems, (5) electronic commerce and enabling technologies, (6) web-based human and computer interaction, and (7) information assurance for the above areas. The results and proceedings will benefit researchers at the Purdue PRISM Lab and at other universities by developing and sharing new advanced production research models and by providing a forum for researchers to discuss, exchange, and plan their discoveries.