Patent ID: 6856845

Claim:
A computer controlled system for monitoring and reporting incremental job status automated reconfigurable manufacturing systems having a pluralyti of modules with a pluralyti of alternative capabilities, the system comprising: a system controller for controlling system modules to automatically reconfigure operation of the plurality of modules within the reconfigurable manufacturing system, wherein said controller includes models of the capabilties of each one of the plurality of modules in the reconfigurable manufacturing system, wherein said models of the capabilities include at least one member selected from the group consisting of timing constraints, feature constraints and commands; at least one planning function for planning utilization of selected module capabilities in the production of job having not lees than one work unit; at least one scheduling function for scheduling utilization of said selected module capabilities in the production of said jobs having not less than one work unit, wherein said scheduling utilization takes into consideration said capability models of each of said modules in the reconfigurable manufacturing system; and at least one logging and integration function for automatically logging and reporting to said system controller execution reports incrementally in real time from each one of the plurality of modules, wherein said execution reports comprise actual values for models variables, wherein said actual values include at least one member selected from the group consisting of execution times, work unit attributes, and resource uses.