A digital equipment identifier system

This study proposes an innovative information resource and service, a digital equipment identifier (DEI) system. The DEI system is a new identification scheme that assigns each piece of equipment a unique identification, based on which various applications can be practiced. When users employ the DEI system to access the data of a piece of equipment by using its DEI, they are directly led to the most up-to-date information about the equipment. The DEI is also useful for establishing a facility layout online because the pictures and other basic data of each piece of equipment in the facility layout can be referenced through the DEI system. A virtual capacity network containing possible vendors and factories of an equipment piece is established according to the DEI of the equipment. An optimal capacity allocation plan is then derived to maximize the average satisfaction levels of factories; therefore, an integer-nonlinear programming problem is solved. The planning results become crucial inputs in establishing a dynamic virtual factory that embodies the changes in capacity over time.