Deriving a systematic approach to changeable manufacturing system design

It has long been argued that Factories are long life and complex products. The complexity of designing factories, and their underlying manufacturing systems, is further amplified when dealing with continuously changing customer demands. At the same time, due to research fragmentation, little if any scientific explanations are available supporting and exploiting the paradigm that "factories are products". In order to address this weakness, this paper presents research results arising from a comparative analysis of systematic "product design" and "manufacturing system design" approaches. The contribution emerging from this research is an integrated systematic design approach to changeable manufacturing systems, based on scientific concepts founded upon product design theories, and is explained through a case study in the paper. This research is part of collaboration between the CERU University of Malta and IAO Fraunhofer aimed at developing a digital decision support tool for planning changeable manufacturing systems.peer-reviewe

A front-end system to support cloud-based manufacturing of customised products

In today’s global market, customized products are amongst an important means to address diverse customer demand and in achieving a unique competitive advantage. Key enablers of this approach are existing product configuration and supporting IT-based manufacturing systems. As a proposed advancement, it considered that the development of a front-end system with a next level of integration to a cloud-based manufacturing infrastructure is able to better support the specification and on-demand manufacture of customized products. In this paper, a new paradigm of Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) environment is introduced and highlights the current research challenges in the configuration of customizable products. Furthermore, the latest development of the front-end system is reported with a view towards further work in the research

Advancing automation and robotics technology for the Space Station and for the US economy. Volume 1: Executive overview

In response to Public Law 98-371, dated July 18, 1984, the NASA Advanced Technology Advisory Committee has studied automation and robotics for use in the Space Station. The Executive Overview, Volume 1 presents the major findings of the study and recommends to NASA principles for advancing automation and robotics technologies for the benefit of the Space Station and of the U.S. economy in general. As a result of its study, the Advanced Technology Advisory Committee believes that a key element of technology for the Space Station is extensive use of advanced general-purpose automation and robotics. These systems could provide the United States with important new methods of generating and exploiting space knowledge in commercial enterprises and thereby help preserve U.S. leadership in space

Changeability of Business Organizations

Nowadays companies are facing an increasing turbulent environment. It is more and more important to react fast on changes to stay competitive. But not only the technology has to be adaptable; also the frame conditions for the production have to adapt as fast as the other elements of a manufacturing company. Therefore, the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics of the Leibniz University of Hanover has implemented a research project to describe and develop changeable organizational structures. The results of the analysis, which design principles can be used to evolve an organizational structure of a factory regarding their changeability will be presented in this paper

The State-of-the-Art and Prospects of Learning Factories

AbstractChangeability of manufacturing systems is an important enabler for offering large variety of competitive products to satisfy customers’ requirements. Learning factories, as teaching and research environments, can play a key role in developing new solutions for changeability, transferring them to the industry and using them in educating engineers. The results of a survey of existing learning factories and their characteristics are presented. Their use in research, teaching and industrial projects is analyzed. A novel scheme to classify those systems with regard to their design, products and their changeability characteristics is outlined. Conclusions about the future of learning factories are drawn

Distributed Manufacturing: A High-Level Node-Based Concept for Open Source Hardware Production

Distributed manufacturing is presented as a means to enable sustainable production and collaboration. Rather than rely on centralised production, distributed manufacturing promises to improve the flexibility and resilience to meet urgent production demands. New frameworks of production, based on manufacturing models with distributed networks, may provide functional examples to industrial practice. This paper discusses efforts in distributed production in the context of Free/Open source hardware and devises a conceptual framework for future pilots at which open source machines, such as a desktop 3D printer, may be manufactured in a network of open/fab lab nodes

TUT-microfactory – a small-size, modular and sustainable production system

Part of: Seliger, Günther (Ed.): Innovative solutions : proceedings / 11th Global Conference on Sustainable Manufacturing, Berlin, Germany, 23rd - 25th September, 2013. - Berlin: Universitätsverlag der TU Berlin, 2013. - ISBN 978-3-7983-2609-5 (online). - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:83-opus4-40276. - pp. 78-83.Micro and desktop factories are small size production systems suitable for fabricating and assembling small parts and products. The development originates in the early 1990’s Japan, where small machines were designed in order to save resources when producing small products. This paper introduces the modular TUTMicrofactory concept, developed at Tampere University of Technology during the past 15 years, and its applications. The sustainability of miniaturized production systems is discussed from three perspectives – environmental, economic and social. The main conclusion is that micro and desktop factories can remarkably enhance the sustainability of manufacturing from all these three perspectives