67,062 research outputs found
Product and process information interactions in assembly decision support systems
A characteristic of concurrent engineering is the intensive information
interchange between areas that are involved through the product life cycle.
Shared information structures to integrate different software applications have
become necessary to support effectively the interchange of information. While .
much work has been done into the concepts of Product and Manufacturing
Models, there is a need to make them able to support Assembly related
activities.
The research reported in this thesis explores and defines the structures of a
Product Model and. a Manufacturing Model to support assembly related
information. These information models support the product development
process, especially during the early stages of the product life cycle. The
structures defined for the models allow information interactions between them
and with application software; these interactions are essential to support an
effective concurrent environment. The Product Model is a source and repository
of the product information, whilst the Manufacturing Model holds information
about the manufacturing processes and resources of an enterprise. A
combination of methods was proposed in order to define the structure for the
information models.
An experimental software system was created and used to show that the
structure defined for the Product Model and the Manufacturing Model can
support· a range of assembly-related software applications through the
concurrent development of the product, system and process, from conceptual
design through to planning. The applications implemented in the experimental
system were Design for Assembly and Assembly Process Planning. The real
data used for the tests was obtained from an industrial collaborator who
manufactures large electrical machines.
This research contributes to the understanding of. the general structural
requirements of the decision support systems based on information models, and
to the integration of Design for Assembly and Assembly Process Planning
The role of visual management in collaborative integrated planning and control for engineer-to-order building systems
Visual Management is a key approach in the implementation of Lean Production. It emphasizes the importance of developing easy-to-understand visual devices for sharing knowledge within an organization. Such visual devices can play an important
role in mitigating the complexity of engineer-to-order production systems. A major difficulty in managing engineer-to-order prefabricated building systems is the need to
integrate planning and control of different processes, such as design, fabrication and assembly on site, in a multiple project environment. This paper reports preliminary findings on the implementation of visual devices for collaborative and integrated
planning and control in a Steel Fabricator, which designs, fabricates and assembles steel structures. The aim of this paper is to understand how visual management tools can contribute to improve the effectiveness of planning and control in this
environment. A set of visual devices have been used in the planning and control system in this company, including a panel that makes available information about 200 simultaneous contracts in an easy-to-understand way. The implementation of those tools has enhanced the participation of different people in the planning process from operational levels or from the different production units
On the Collaboration of an Automatic Path-Planner and a Human User for Path-Finding in Virtual Industrial Scenes
This paper describes a global interactive framework enabling an automatic path-planner and a user to collaborate for finding a path in cluttered virtual environments. First, a collaborative architecture including the user and the planner is described. Then, for real time purpose, a motion planner divided into different steps is presented. First, a preliminary workspace discretization is done without time limitations at the beginning of the simulation. Then, using these pre-computed data, a second algorithm finds a collision free path in real time. Once the path is found, an haptic artificial guidance on the path is provided to the user. The user can then influence the planner by not following the path and automatically order a new path research. The performances are measured on tests based on assembly simulation in CAD scenes
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Towards a change process planning tool
The relationship between a product and its design process is generally complex and not fully understood. When modifying a product, industry still rarely considers the implementation process and its consequences for other design activities in the company, which is hard to assess with conventional planning methods. Although change processes are highly constrained, product and process constraints are not usually considered together or traded off against each other when planning the change. Inadequate assessment and planning of the change implementation process can lead to costly knock-on effects across the product and the design process. This paper argues for a combination of change and process research and discusses requirements for a change process planning tool. It proposes a system for the analysis of the impact of change on the product as well as other company activities. Then, a more informed selection between change alternatives is possible
Virtual bloXing - assembly rapid prototyping for near net shapes
Virtual reality (VR) provides another dimension to many engineering applications. Its immersive and interactive nature allows an intuitive approach to study both cognitive activities and performance evaluation. Market competitiveness means having products meet form, fit and function quickly. Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RP&M) technologies are increasingly being applied to produce functional prototypes and the direct manufacturing of small components. Despite its flexibility, these systems have common drawbacks such as slow build rates, a limited number of build axes (typically one) and the need for post processing. This paper presents a Virtual Assembly Rapid Prototyping (VARP) project which involves evaluating cognitive activities in assembly tasks based on the adoption of immersive virtual reality along with a novel nonlayered rapid prototyping for near net shape (NNS) manufacturing of components. It is envisaged that this integrated project will facilitate a better understanding of design for manufacture and assembly by utilising equivalent scale digital and physical prototyping in one rapid prototyping system. The state of the art of the VARP project is also presented in this paper
Virtual assembly rapid prototyping of near net shapes
Virtual reality (VR) provides another dimension to many engineering applications. Its immersive and interactive nature allows an intuitive approach to study both cognitive activities and performance evaluation. Market competitiveness means having products meet form, fit and function quickly. Rapid Prototyping and Manufacturing (RP&M) technologies are increasingly being applied to produce functional prototypes and the direct manufacturing of small components. Despite its flexibility, these systems have common drawbacks such as slow build rates, a limited number of build axes (typically one) and the need for post processing. This paper presents a Virtual Assembly Rapid Prototyping (VARP) project which involves evaluating cognitive activities in assembly tasks based on the adoption of immersive virtual reality along with a novel non-layered rapid prototyping for near net shape (NNS) manufacturing of components. It is envisaged that this integrated project will facilitate a better understanding of design for manufacture and assembly by utilising equivalent scale digital and physical prototyping in one rapid prototyping system. The state of the art of the VARP project is also presented in this paper
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