In order to improve the planning and implementation of the manufacture of a product in a manufacturing plant, the manufacturing plant is modeled via a machine network plan modeling the manufacturing plant as a network of manufacturing nodes, and the product to be manufactured being modeled via a product synthesis plan modeling the hierarchical structure of the product in the form of a tree of product synthesis nodes. The machine network plan and the product synthesis plan are linked with each other to form a manufacturing sequence, in which a manufacturing node of the machine network plan is selected for each operation node of the product synthesis plan, which selected manufacturing node carries out the manufacturing process to be carried out at the relevant operation node. The manufacturing sequence is carried out in the manufacturing plant via a system controller in order to produce the product.

In order to improve the planning and implementation of the manufacture of a product in a manufacturing plant, the manufacturing plant is modeled via a machine network plan modeling the manufacturing plant as a network of manufacturing nodes, and the product to be manufactured being modeled via a product synthesis plan modeling the hierarchical structure of the product in the form of a tree of product synthesis nodes. The machine network plan and the product synthesis plan are linked with each other to form a manufacturing sequence, in which a manufacturing node of the machine network plan is selected for each operation node of the product synthesis plan, which selected manufacturing node carries out the manufacturing process to be carried out at the relevant operation node. The manufacturing sequence is carried out in the manufacturing plant via a system controller in order to produce the product.

A cell control apparatus controls a plurality of manufacturing cells each including a manufacturing machine. The cell control apparatus comprises an operation extraction part configured to extract a transferable operation which can be performed by a manufacturing cell having operation time to spare among operations of a manufacturing cell having delay in operation. The cell control apparatus commands the manufacturing cell having delay in operation to stop at least a part of operations in the transferable operation and commands the manufacturing cell having the operation time to spare to perform the at least the part of the operations.

A cell control apparatus controls a plurality of manufacturing cells each including a manufacturing machine. The cell control apparatus comprises an operation extraction part configured to extract a transferable operation which can be performed by a manufacturing cell having operation time to spare among operations of a manufacturing cell having delay in operation. The cell control apparatus commands the manufacturing cell having delay in operation to stop at least a part of operations in the transferable operation and commands the manufacturing cell having the operation time to spare to perform the at least the part of the operations.