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

Configuration of robust manufacturing systems

Considering the increasing turbulence in the markets, many companies are faced with the task of responding to changes in customer demand in a flexible and timely manner. A variety of current research projects in terms of configuration of production systems deals with the increasing flexibility of several elements of a production system or the entire system, to meet the need for flexible responses. Furthermore, there is the avoidance or reduction of any kind of waste, including the creation of standards for the information and material flow processes at the heart of the company's efforts. Against this background, also organisationally robust processes are increasingly becoming the focus of operational actors. This paper points out the possibilities of influencing production systems and what characteristics exist regarding the requirement of structural changes. In this context, production control by defined loops and checking structural performance are indicators relevant to the focus of following considerations

Towards A Holistic Cost Estimate Of Factory Planning Projects

As an interdisciplinary and complex task, factory planning lays the foundation for the economic efficiency of factories. Factory planning projects significantly influence the financial situation of production companies due to their high capital requirements and long lifetime. Today's inaccurate basis for decision-making in cost estimation leads to serious financial challenges in the future. Costs must be estimated with sufficient reliability to avoid misinvestments. There is currently a need for research for a holistic and systematic approach. This is partly due to the many requirements such an approach must meet. In this context, the paper aims to determine the requirements for a holistic approach to cost estimation in the early phase of factory planning projects. Based on a literature review, four key requirements for a holistic cost estimate could be identified and prepared for an approach. This includes the joint consideration of the interactions between spatial and process requirements. In addition, the early planning phase is challenging, in which little reliable information is available, but costs can still be sufficiently influenced. Furthermore, the operating costs during factory operation must be considered over and above the specific investment. With the help of various factors influencing factory design, scenarios should be generated and compared early to counter future opportunities and risks in the best possible way. These requirements can now be used for an approach to be developed that enables holistic cost estimates in the early phase of factory planning projects

Procedure Model for Dimensioning and Investment Cost Calculation in an Early Factory Planning Phase

Companies and their factories face constant change in today's world. Cost-intensive factory planning projects are being carried out in shorter intervals due to the increasing dynamism of the production environment. The related investments have a substantial impact on the liquidity of companies. Shorter production life cycles and changing consumer behaviour also require an adapted and more sustainable factory planning and cost estimation. However, especially in an early planning phase, available data and information are often uncertain and inaccurate. This effects in particular the outcome of the central dimensioning variables (operating resources, employees and area) for the planned factories. Incorrect dimensioning of these variables and thus of the associated costs can lead to substantial misinvestments. A holistic approach to obtain a reliable cost estimation of the factory project at an early stage is not yet available. This article therefore presents the development of a comprehensive procedure model for dimensioning and investment cost calculation in an early factory planning phase. For this purpose, relevant information and planning tasks with regard to dimensioning and cost estimation have to be identified first. Determined output values of the subsequent resource dimensioning represent the input values for the cost calculation. With the identification of surcharge factors, cost rates and calculation methods, the dimensioning variables, in particular the production area as the basis for the planned factory, can be estimated in terms of costs at an early stage

Improving The Planning Quality Through Model-Based Factory Planning In BIM

In recent years, Building Information Modelling (BIM), which originated in the construction industry, is increasingly finding its way into the planning of factories and production environments. In the scientific assessment of this change and possible future scenarios regarding BIM, the research mostly focuses on the planning process and the influence that the use of BIM has on it. However, improving the outcome of a factory planning project enjoys priority over optimizing the planning process itself regardless of whether BIM is being used or not. This paper therefore aims to build a bridge from a process-side view to the planning result. The concept of BIM is to be explained from a technical point of view establishing a reference to the concept of synergetic factory planning. For this purpose, the process view and the spatial view will be examined and the BIM model will be characterized with regard to different levels of development in the planning process. The goal is to show how the use of BIM in factory planning can ultimately improve the planning result. For this purpose, the factory targets are considered and their optimizability through the use of BIM is investigated

Development Of A Digital Planning Tool For Dimensioning And Investment Cost Calculation In An Early Factory Planning Phase

As an interdisciplinary task, factory planning represents a key factor for logistics, supply chain and ultimately, the economic success of companies in the manufacturing sector. In factory planning projects, the focus is on the early planning phase, where costs and the associated misinvestments can still be significantly influenced. The challenge lies in the early valid dimensioning of the planned factory despite fuzzy data to provide decision-making support regarding the investment costs. In this context, this article presents the development of a digital service and planning tool based on a scientific procedure model. For this purpose, the research needs are first derived, reference is made to a scientific procedure model and the requirements analysis for the tool is presented. The tool developed on this basis aims to dimension and economically assess planned factories at an early planning stage. In this way, decision-makers in companies will be provided with data-based results to make future-oriented decisions between different project scenarios

Adjusting the Factory Planning Process when Using Immature Technologies

Due to shorter product-life-cycles, innovations in production engineering have to keep pace with today\u27s technologies. As a result, factory planning is more and more challenged by technologies being immature for series production. Usually, these immature technologies place special demands on production layout and quality management, for example. These demands have to be considered in the factory planning process. Moreover, technologies are part of the production process that is created by a series of technologies. Hence, a planning process has to ensure that the positive aspects of a new technology are not negated by arrangements to protect the technology chain against failure due to immature technologies. With Selective Laser Melting (SLM) used as example for an additive manufacturing technology, this paper presents a method of planning a production system by taking the technology maturity into account. Possible requirements of an immature technology interacting with the process chain will be addressed as well as adjustments to be made to the factory planning process

Methodology and use of variant fields in Factory Planning

Anticipation capability, responsiveness as well as the ability to deal with changes have become key factors of manufacturing companies. These developments directly affect factory planning. Factories need to provide a constant and responsive adaptability. This paper contributes to the adaption of the planning process with regard to the key factors. Modularization of the production system is one aspect of addressing the described challenges, the planning process itself has to be adapted to modular factory structures. The question to answer is which variation of production system modules is most appropriate in specific conditions. Today’s planners lack a tool that enables them to make the right decision about the configuration of the factory. This paper proposes a configuration logic for the modularized production system. The logic intends to generate an optimally configured production system. Furthermore the developed Variant Fields offer the possibility to apply the configuration logic within the planning process in practice. In a Variant Field features of a module of the production system (e.g. room utilisation factor) are related with one another, which span a two-dimensional field. Each axis is divided by different characteristic values of variants of a module. According to the characteristic values along the axles different areas within the Variant Field are determined. These areas are thus linked to the variants of a module. For the configuration of the production system, its requirements in the two features of the Variant Field then are marked in it. The variant is selected according to the area in which the marking falls. In the paper the methodology and the use of Variant Fields will be explained. In order to do so, the configuration of logistic systems is used as an example for illustration

Flow-based approach for holistic factory engineering and design

The engineering of future factories requires digital tools along life cycle phases from investment planning to ramp-up. Manufacturers need scientific-based integrated highly dynamic data management systems for the participative and integrated factory planning. The paper presents a new approach for the continuously integrated product design, factory and process planning, through a service-oriented architecture for the implementation of digital factory tools. A first prototype of the digital factory framework has been realised by a comprehensive scenario for factory, equipment and process planning. The phases of factory operation and equipment maintenance are integrated, as well. The enabling technologies, grid computing and workflow management, which supports the comprehensive and integrated engineering of products, factory and processes are shortly introduced