Design and Management of Manufacturing Systems

Although the design and management of manufacturing systems have been explored in the literature for many years now, they still remain topical problems in the current scientific research. The changing market trends, globalization, the constant pressure to reduce production costs, and technical and technological progress make it necessary to search for new manufacturing methods and ways of organizing them, and to modify manufacturing system design paradigms. This book presents current research in different areas connected with the design and management of manufacturing systems and covers such subject areas as: methods supporting the design of manufacturing systems, methods of improving maintenance processes in companies, the design and improvement of manufacturing processes, the control of production processes in modern manufacturing systems production methods and techniques used in modern manufacturing systems and environmental aspects of production and their impact on the design and management of manufacturing systems. The wide range of research findings reported in this book confirms that the design of manufacturing systems is a complex problem and that the achievement of goals set for modern manufacturing systems requires interdisciplinary knowledge and the simultaneous design of the product, process and system, as well as the knowledge of modern manufacturing and organizational methods and techniques

DECISION SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR ASSEMBLY LINE PLANNING -MODULAR SUBSYTEMS FOR A LARGE SCALE PRODUCTION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

In the domain of assembly lines, process sheets are entities that carry assembly process descriptions (work instructions), assembly time estimations, product workspaces and other configuration management and control information. These process sheets get assigned to workstations during the process of assembly line balancing. In this research two tools have been developed to aid in the assembly line planning process. In order to ensure that assembly line workers do not intrude upon each other\u27s workspace, two assembly processes operating on the same product workspace must not be assigned to the same station. Generating and maintaining product workspace information for every process sheet is automated by use of the Product Workspace Identification Tool developed in this research. This tool uses CAD data, custom built analysis software, and web-based databases to define, compute, and store product workspace information. All assembly work instructions must have time studies. These time studies are used primarily in line balancing. Methods Time Measurement (MTM) is a set of charts that provide standard assembly time estimations based on the parts (and their surrounding space) that are being assembled. In the adapted version of MTM that is used for this research, there are twenty-two MTM tables and several pieces of information are required to arrive at an assembly time study. Using the MTM tables to generate assembly time estimates is cumbersome simply because the number of work instructions for a given product can run into the thousands. The MTM estimate generator presented in this thesis provides decision support to the process sheet author by presenting a reduced set of MTM tables and also by performing filtering within the MTM tables. Testing and validation of this tool showed that it has a mapping accuracy of 75%. These two tools are modular subsystems of a large production management system

Modeling, design and scheduling of computer integrated manufacturing and demanufacturing systems

This doctoral dissertation work aims to provide a discrete-event system-based methodology for design, implementation, and operation of flexible and agile manufacturing and demanufacturing systems. After a review of the current academic and industrial activities in these fields, a Virtual Production Lines (VPLs) design methodology is proposed to facilitate a Manufacturing Execution System integrated with a shop floor system. A case study on a back-end semiconductor line is performed to demonstrate that the proposed methodology is effective to increase system throughput and decrease tardiness. An adaptive algorithm is proposed to deal with the machine failure and maintenance. To minimize the environmental impacts caused by end-of-life or faulty products, this research addresses the fundamental design and implementation issues of an integrated flexible demanufacturing system (IFDS). In virtue of the success of the VPL design and differences between disassembly and assembly, a systematic approach is developed for disassembly line design. This thesis presents a novel disassembly planning and demanufacturing scheduling method for such a system. Case studies on the disassembly of personal computers are performed illustrating how the proposed approaches work

Powertrain Assembly Lines Automatic Configuration Using a Knowledge Based Engineering Approach

Technical knowledge and experience are intangible assets crucial for competitiveness. Knowledge is particularly important when it comes to complex design activities such as the configuration of manufacturing systems. The preliminary design of manufacturing systems relies significantly on experience of designers and engineers, lessons learned and complex sets of rules and is subject to a huge variability of inputs and outputs and involves decisions which must satisfy many competing requirements. This complicated design process is associated with high costs, long lead times and high probability of risks and reworks. It is estimated that around 20% of the designer’s time is dedicated to searching and analyzing past available knowledge, while 40% of the information required for design is identified through personally stored information. At a company level, the design of a new production line does not start from scratch. Based on the basic requirements of the customers, engineers use their own knowledge and try to recall past layout ideas searching for production line designs stored locally in their CAD systems [1]. A lot of knowledge is already stored, and has been used for a long time and evolved over time. There is a need to retrieve this knowledge and integrate it into a common and reachable framework. Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) and knowledge representation techniques are considered to be a successful way to tackle this design problem at an industrial level. KBE is, in fact, a research field that studies methodologies and technologies for capturing and re-using product and process engineering knowledge to achieve automation of repetitive design tasks [2]. This study presents a methodology to support the configuration of powertrain assembly lines, reducing design times by introducing a best practice for production systems provider companies. The methodology is developed in a real industrial environment, within Comau S.p.A., introducing the role of a knowledge engineer. The approach includes extraction of existing technical knowledge and implementation in a knowledge-based software framework. The macro system design requirements (e.g. cycle time, production mix, etc.) are taken as input. A user driven procedure guides the designer in the definition of the macro layout-related decisions and in the selection of the equipment to be allocated within the project. The framework is then integrated with other software tools allowing the first phase design of the line including a technical description and a 2D and 3D CAD line layout. The KBE application is developed and tested on a specific powertrain assembly case study. Finally, a first validation among design engineers is presented, comparing traditional and new approach and estimating a cost-benefit analysis useful for future possible KBE implementations

Aggregate assembly process planning for concurrent engineering

In today's consumer and economic climate, manufacturers are finding it increasingly difficult to produce finished products with increased functionality whilst fulfilling the aesthetic requirements of the consumer. To remain competitive, manufacturers must always look for ways to meet the faster, better, and cheaper mantra of today's economy. The ability for any industry to mirror the ideal world, where the design, manufacturing, and assembly process of a product would be perfected before it is put mto production, will undoubtedly save a great deal of time and money. This thesis introduces the concept of aggregate assembly process planning for the conceptual stages of design, with the aim of providing the methodology behind such an environment. The methodology is based on an aggregate product model and a connectivity model. Together, they encompass all the requirements needed to fully describe a product in terms of its assembly processes, providing a suitable means for generating assembly sequences. Two general-purpose heuristics methods namely, simulated annealing and genetic algorithms are used for the optimisation of assembly sequences generated, and the loading of the optimal assembly sequences on to workstations, generating an optimal assembly process plan for any given product. The main novelty of this work is in the mapping of the optimisation methods to the issue of assembly sequence generation and line balancing. This includes the formulation of the objective functions for optimismg assembly sequences and resource loading. Also novel to this work is the derivation of standard part assembly methodologies, used to establish and estimate functional tunes for standard assembly operations. The method is demonstrated using CAPABLEAssembly; a suite of interlinked modules that generates a pool of optimised assembly process plans using the concepts above. A total of nine industrial products have been modelled, four of which are the conceptual product models. The process plans generated to date have been tested on industrial assembly lines and in some cases yield an increase in the production rate

Kinematics and Robot Design I, KaRD2018

This volume collects the papers published on the Special Issue “Kinematics and Robot Design I, KaRD2018” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/robotics/special_issues/KARD), which is the first issue of the KaRD Special Issue series, hosted by the open access journal “MDPI Robotics”. The KaRD series aims at creating an open environment where researchers can present their works and discuss all the topics focused on the many aspects that involve kinematics in the design of robotic/automatic systems. Kinematics is so intimately related to the design of robotic/automatic systems that the admitted topics of the KaRD series practically cover all the subjects normally present in well-established international conferences on “mechanisms and robotics”. KaRD2018 received 22 papers and, after the peer-review process, accepted only 14 papers. The accepted papers cover some theoretical and many design/applicative aspects

Automotive Supply Chain Auswertung mit herkömmlichem Modell und integriertem Modell

ABSTRACT: Increasing competition due to market globalization, product diversity and technological breakthroughs stimulates independent automotive companies to collaborate in a supply chain that allows them to gain mutual benefits. Especially the events of the past years have shell-shocked even the most ardent industry participants – a crisis and the following hard recovery. Not only the critical challenges in implementing process lean with low cost and high quality, also critical to success is the ability to efficiently meet stricter emissions and fuel economy standards escalating in most jurisdictions. With all the factors working beneath the waves, supply chain management becomes the core source of a company’s competitive advantages and even the trump of the entire automotive industry’s success. A proper supply chain strategy provides financial returns and other key factors superior to the old concepts which brought profits before but no longer up to date now. Correctly design and effectively evaluate the supply chains, and improve the supply chain structure dynamically over time, are the key methods for an automotive company to survive and succeed in the volatile and critical automobile industrial environment. In this research work, based on the real case study in the automotive door system supply, different supply chain scenarios are designed and corresponding performance evaluations are made by applying different methods, namely the conventional model and the integrated model with their corresponding algorithms. With conventional model, the evaluation is done from different aspects, where the chosen perspectives such as costs, flexibility, stability, and reliability are assessed respectively for the multi-stage international supply chains. The data applied in this model comes from real-case door module supply, and the evaluation results helps in the decision making in localization process of that certain project. To be able to evaluate more complicated supply chain scenarios in a more accurate and efficient way, an integrated model is designed for the comprehensive performance evaluation. Based on the fuzzy theory, a MDFIE (Multilevel Dynamic Fuzzy Integrated Evaluation) algorithm is developed to assess the automotive supply chain performance. With the real case of vehicle door system supply, a detailed index system is designed based on a profound understanding of the automotive door supply chain. And with this new method, supply chain scenarios with different outsource degree and integration degree are evaluated and analyzed, a positive solution of deeper integration and downstream task shifting in the automotive supply structure is concluded in the end. In addition to the use in this research work, the integrated model, especially the index system can be flexibly adjusted for other automotive supply chains under their special interest and requirements. And with the MDFIE algorithm or other possible methods, the model can also be further developed into user-friendly software or system for the normal application. This software development is suggested for the further research. Based on the researches done in this work, a new tier structure is proposed as well. A mega system supplier which is defined as the new Tier 0,5 and other outsourced service companies which are playing as the half tiers (tier 1,5/ 2,5…) are discussed in this work. With all the theoretical researches and practical investigations, this new structure which occupies the niche positions of supply chain is supposed to be benefiting the entire automotive supply chain in many critical aspects, like the long lasting over capacity problem and the coming E-mobility trend. Some other suggestions like the application of RFID technology are also proposed for increasing the productivity and strengthen the information flow along supply chain. In general, improving the entire automotive supply chain performance, is the ultimate goal of supply chain management, which means balancing all participators’ maximum profits and offering the highest market service level. The realization of the proposals and concepts, is also supposed to be studied in the further research.ZUSAMENFASSUNG: Die strengeren Emissions- und Kraftstoffverbrauchstandards effizient zu erfüllen, spielt neben der kritischen Herausforderungen bei der Umsetzung „Lean Prozess“ mit niedrigen Kosten und hoher Qualität für den Erfolg auch eine entscheidende Rolle. Der zunehmende Wettbewerb infolge der Globalisierung der Märkte, der Produktvielfalt und technologischer Durchbrüche stimuliert die Zusammenarbeit von unabhängiger Automobileunternehmen. Insbesondre in den letzten Jahren wurden die Teilnehmer aus dem Industriebranche von der Krise und dessen nachstehender Erholung schockiert. Mit allen Faktoren unter den Wellen bleibt das Supply-Chain-Management die Hauptquelle für die Wettbewerbsvorteile eines Unternehmens und überhaupt der Trumpf des Erfolgs in der gesamten Automobilindustrie. Eine richtige Supply Chain-Strategie bietet finanzielle Erträge und andere wichtige Faktoren, die besser als die alten Konzepte sind. Richtiges Design und gewissenhaftes Abschätzen des Supply Chains, und im Laufe der Zeit die Supply-Chain-Struktur dynamisch zu Verbessern sind die Schlüssel-Methoden für ein Automobilunternehmen, um in dem unberechenbaren und kritischen Automobilindustrieumfeld zu überleben und erfolgreich zu bleiben. Diese Arbeit basiert auf der realen Fallstudien der Türsystemlieferung in der Automobilindustrie. Verschiedene Supply Chain Szenarien werden entworfen und die entsprechenden Leistungen werden durch Anwendung unterschiedlicher Methoden bewertet, und zwar das herkömmlichen Modell und das integrierte Modell mit den entsprechenden Algorithmen. Beim herkömmlichen Modell wird unter verschiedenen Aspekten bewertet, wobei die gewählten Perspektiven wie Kosten, Flexibilität, Stabilität und Zuverlässigkeit jeweils für die mehrstufigen internationalen Lieferketten bewertet werden. Die genommenen Daten in diesem Modell stammen aus den Fällen von Türmodul - Auslieferung. Die Bewertungsergebnisse sind beim Entscheidungstreffen im Lokalisierungsprozess des gewissen Projektes hilfreich. Um die komplizierter Supply Chain Szenarien in einer genaueren und effizienteren Methode bewerten zu können, wird ein integriertes Modell für die umfassenden Leistungsbewertung gebaut. Auf der Basis von Fuzzy-Theorie, wird ein MDFIE (Multilevel Dynamische Fuzzy Integrierte Evaluation) Algorithmus entwickelt. Anhand der realen Auslieferungsfälle im Fahrzeugtürensystem wird ein detailliertes Index-System ausgelegt, welches auf einem tiefen Verständnis der Automotive Supply Chain basiert. Mit dieser neuen Methode werden Supply-Chain-Szenarien durch unterschiedliche Outsourcengrade und Integrationsgrade ausgewertet und analysiert. Eine positive Lösung von der vertiefen Integration und von der nachgeordneten Aufgabenumlagerung in der Automobilzuliefer-Struktur wird am Ende kristallisiert. Zusätzlich zu dem Einsatz in dieser Arbeit kann das integrierte Modell, vor allem das Index-System flexibel für andere Wertschöpfungsketten ihrer besonderen Interessen und Bedürfnissen entsprechend angepasst werden. Und mit dem MDFIE Algorithmus oder andere mögliche Methoden kann das Modell auch in einer benutzerfreundlichen Software oder System für die normale Anwendung integriert und entwickelt werden. Diese Software-Entwicklung wird für die weitere Forschung vorgeschlagen. Basierend auf den Untersuchungen in dieser Arbeit wird eine neue Stufenstruktur auch vorgeschlagen. Ein Mega-Systemzulieferer, die sogenannt neues Tier 0,5 ist, und ausgelagerter Service-Unternehmen, die als Hälfte Tiers (Tier 1,5 / 2,5 ...) definiert werden, sind in dieser Arbeit diskutiert. Mit theoretischen und praktischen Forschungen soll diese neue Struktur, deren Nische Positionen der Supply Chain beschäftigt sind, zu Gunsten der gesamten automobilen Wertschöpfungskette in vielen kritischen Aspekten bringen, z.B. das Überkapazitätsproblem und der kommende E-Mobilität Trend. Einige andere Vorschläge wie die Anwendung der RFID-Technologie zur Steigerung der Produktivität und zur Stärkung der Informationsfluss entlang der Lieferkette wird auch gemacht. Das ultimative Ziel des Supply-Chain- Managemenes ist die allgemeine Verbesserung der gesamten automobilen Wertschöpfungskettenleistung, die die maximale Gewinne von allen Teilnehmern zur Balancierung und den höchsten Market-Service-Level bedeutet. Die Realisierung der Vorschläge und Konzepte soll auch in der weiteren Forschung untersucht werden

Mass Production Processes

It is always hard to set manufacturing systems to produce large quantities of standardized parts. Controlling these mass production lines needs deep knowledge, hard experience, and the required related tools as well. The use of modern methods and techniques to produce a large quantity of products within productive manufacturing processes provides improvements in manufacturing costs and product quality. In order to serve these purposes, this book aims to reflect on the advanced manufacturing systems of different alloys in production with related components and automation technologies. Additionally, it focuses on mass production processes designed according to Industry 4.0 considering different kinds of quality and improvement works in mass production systems for high productive and sustainable manufacturing. This book may be interesting to researchers, industrial employees, or any other partners who work for better quality manufacturing at any stage of the mass production processes

Hand-Gesture Based Programming of Industrial Robot Manipulators

Nowadays, industrial robot manipulators and manufacturing processes are associated as never before. Robot manipulators execute repetitive tasks with increased accuracy and speed, features necessary for industries with needs for manufacturing of products in large quantities by reducing the production time. Although robot manipulators have a significant role for the enhancement of productivity within industries, the programming process of the robot manipulators is an important drawback. Traditional programming methodologies requires robot programming experts and are time consuming. This thesis work aims to develop an application for programming industrial robot manipulators excluding the need of traditional programing methodologies exploiting the intuitiveness of humans’ hands’ gestures. The development of input devices for intuitive Human-Machine Interactions provides the possibility to capture such gestures. Hence, the need of the need of robot manipulator programming experts can be replaced by task experts. In addition, the integration of intuitive means of interaction can reduce be also reduced. The components to capture the hands’ operators’ gestures are a data glove and a precise hand-tracking device. The robot manipulator imitates the motion that human operator performs with the hand, in terms of position. Inverse kinematics are applied to enhance the programming of robot manipulators in-dependently of their structure and manufacturer and researching the possibility for optimizing the programmed robot paths. Finally, a Human-Machine Interface contributes in the programming process by offering important information for the programming process and the status of the integrated components