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

DFM synthesis approach based on product-process interface modelling. Application to the peen forming process.

Engineering design approach are curently CAD-centred design process. Manufacturing information is selected and assessed very late in the design process and above all as a reactive task instead of being proactive to lead the design choices. DFM appraoches are therefore assesment methods that compare several design alternatives and not real design approaches at all. Main added value of this research work concerns the use of a product-process interface model to jointly manage both the product and the manufacturing data in a proactive DFM way. The DFM synthesis approach and the interface model are presented via the description of the DFM software platform

Evolutionary Economics celebrates Innovation and Creativity based Economy\ud

The paper draws issue on the evolutionary economics that open our mind on seeing economy as growing and living organism with any characters of robustness, self-organization, adaptation, and evolution. This has been recognized, as in global picture, we enter the phase in which information and knowledge acquisition rapidly plays a major role in economy. The discussions is presented by demonstrating some qualitative properties and theoretical explorations on long range historical economic growth and development and thus followed by some highlights on innovation, creativity and elaborations regarding to fitness landscapes incorporating memetics, as works related to social and cultural aspects of social system, while talking about economic system in general. The discussions depicts some important notions on market and product diversifications that have been the source of the economic growth in general

Life cycle assessment (LCA) applied to the process industry: a review

Purpose : Life cycle assessment (LCA) methodology is a well-established analytical method to quantify environmental impacts, which has been mainly applied to products. However, recent literature would suggest that it has also the potential as an analysis and design tool for processes, and stresses that one of the biggest challenges of this decade in the field of process systems engineering (PSE) is the development of tools for environmental considerations. Method : This article attempts to give an overview of the integration of LCA methodology in the context of industrial ecology, and focuses on the use of this methodology for environmental considerations concerning process design and optimization. Results : The review identifies that LCA is often used as a multi-objective optimization of processes: practitioners use LCA to obtain the inventory and inject the results into the optimization model. It also shows that most of the LCA studies undertaken on process analysis consider the unit processes as black boxes and build the inventory analysis on fixed operating conditions. Conclusions : The article highlights the interest to better assimilate PSE tools with LCA methodology, in order to produce a more detailed analysis. This will allow optimizing the influence of process operating conditions on environmental impacts and including detailed environmental results into process industry

Technological Change and the Roaring Twenties: A Neoclassical Perspective

In this paper, we address the causes of the Roaring Twenties in the United States. In particular, we use a version of the real business cycle model to test the hypothesis that an extraordinary pace of productivity growth was the driving factor. Our motivation comes from the abundance of evidence of significant technological progress during this period, fed by innovations in manufacturing and the widespread introduction of electricity. Our estimated total factor productivity series generate artificial model output that shows high conformity with the data: the model economy successfully replicates the boom years from 1922-1929.real business cycles, Roaring Twenties

Simulation study for investment decisions on the EcoBoost camshaft machining line

Design/redesign of manufacturing systems is a complex, risky, and expensive task. Ford Motor Company’s Valencia Engine Plant faces this challenge as it plans to upgrade its machining and assembly lines to introduce the new EcoBoost engines. The research project described in this paper aimed to support the transition process particularly at the camshaft machining line by using simulation modelling techniques. A series of experiments was carried out using the simulation model developed, and recommendations were proposed based on the results of these experiments to support the decision as to where to invest on the line. The outcomes from the research project indicated that investment is required in terms of increasing the capacity of two bottleneck operations through retooling and improving the conveyor routing logic in one key area. Keywords: simulation modelling, closed-loop network, automotive production system

Expert systems and the emergence of teledesign

This paper considers the extent to which the amateur use of expert systems for home design challenges traditional views of the design process. The issues are examined in the context of competing definitions of design. The emergence of a design process characterised as ‘teledesign’ is then considered, wherein retailers provide a CAD/CAM service to consumers, allowing the latter to use expert systems to modify template designs and get products fabricated to their own specifications. Such a system may be seen to empower consumers as designers, rather than just selectors of products, and would differ considerably from established paradigms of design, manufacture and consumption, such as that given by Baudrillard

A framework for documenting and analyzing life-cycle costs using a simple network based representation

The introduction of high reliability systems combined with new ways of operating complex systems, particularly in aircraft design and operation has received much attention in recent years. Some systems are now being introduced into service, however, justifying such systems on a financial basis is difficult and may act to limit the rate of introduction on new products. Conventional life cycle costing based on a hierarchical cost breakdown structure is poor at recording and analysing the cost implications of introducing new technologies that have effects that span more than one phase in the life cycle. There is a risk that too much emphasis is put on ‘faith’ that a candidate technology will reduce cost because the cost analysis methods lack descriptive and analytical power. We describe an approach to representing the costs associated with introducing new technologies and evaluating their total cost. Our aim was to facilitate the comparison of different technological choices in new product development, with a particular interest in how the perceived benefits of enhanced reliability systems can be shown in a way that is inclusive, objective and easy to understand

Technological Change and the Roaring Twenties: A Neoclassical Perspective

In this paper, we address the causes of the Roaring Twenties in the United States. In particular, we use a version of the real business cycle model to test the hypothesis that an extraordinary pace of productivity growth was the driving factor. Our motivation comes from the abundance of evidence of signi?cant technological progress during this period, fed by innovations in manufacturing and the widespread introduction of electricity. Our estimated total factor productivity series generate arti?cial model output that shows high conformity with the data: the model economy sucessfully replicates the boom years from 1922-1929.Real Business Cycles, Roaring Twenties.

Business process simulation: An alternative modelling technique for the information system development process

This paper discusses the idea that even though information systems development (ISD) approaches have long advocated the use of integrated organisational views, the modelling techniques used have not been adapted accordingly and remain focused on the automated information system (IS) solution. Existing research provides evidence that business process simulation (BPS) can be used at different points in the ISD process to provide better integrated organisational views that aid the design of appropriate IS solutions. Despite this fact, research in this area is not extensive; suggesting that the potential of using BPS for the ISD process is not yet well understood. The paper uses the findings from three different case studies to illustrate the ways BPS has been used at different points in the ISD process. It compares the results against IS modelling techniques, highlighting the advantages and disadvantages that BPS has over the latter. The research necessary to develop appropriate BPS tools and give guidance on their use in the ISD process is discussed