Production lines in discrete manufacturing have huge number of data which changes in real-time basis. FA systems deal with such real-time data for controlling the equipments cooperatively within each production line or cell. In order to achieve collaborative and synchronous manufacturing within a production area or site level, these lines need to be integrated by Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). However, due to its data volume, it is impossible to get all of the actual information into computer. Moreover, decision-making of human needs to be involved in the system, so that the future system performance cannot be predicted any more. This paper discusses such open control system including human decision-making, and tries to show a collaborative example, where MES has a virtual production lines and occasionally compares with actual data provided from FA systems. An experimental production line is illustrated and a preliminary result is reported.
