Innovative configurable and collaborative approach to automation systems engineering for automotive powertrain assembly

Presently the automotive industry is facing enormous pressure due to global competition and ever changing legislative, economic and customer demands. Both, agility and reconfiguration are widely recognised as important attributes for manufacturing systems to satisfy the needs of competitive global markets. To facilitate and accommodate unforeseen business changes within the automotive industry, a new proactive methodology is urgently required for the design, build, assembly and reconfiguration of automation systems. There is also need for the promotion of new technologies and engineering methods to enable true engineering concurrency between product and process development. Virtual construction and testing of new automation systems prior to build is now identified as a crucial requirement to enable system verification and to allow the investigation of design alternatives prior to building and testing physical systems. The main focus of this research was to design and develop reconfigurable assembly systems within the powertrain sector of the automotive industry by capturing and modelling relevant business and engineering processes. This research has proposed and developed a more process-efficient and robust automation system design, build and implementation approach via new engineering services and a standard library of reusable mechanisms. Existing research at Loughborough had created the basic technology for a component based approach to automation. However, no research had been previously undertaken on the application of this approach in a user engineering and business context. The objective of this research was therefore to utilise this prototype method and associated engineering tools and to devise novel business and engineering processes to enable the component-based approach to be applied in industry. This new approach has been named Configurable and Collaborative Automation Systems (CO AS). In particular this new research has studied the implications of migration to a COAS approach in terms of I) necessary changes to the end-users business processes, 2) potential to improve the robustness of the resultant system and 3) potential for improved efficiency and greater collaboration across the supply chain... cont'

Cost-effective Design of Automotive Framing Systems Using Flexibility and Reconfigurability Principles

Manufacturing enterprises are entering an era of new challenges where manufacturing needs to compete in a global economy with open and unpredicted market changes. Manufacturing facilities need to possess a high degree of flexibility, enabling mass customization of production. Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS) is a relatively new concept, which if adopted properly, will become a design foundation for the next generation of world-class production systems. They will help automotive companies achieve rapid response and cost-effective product delivery aligned with the current market demand. This research introduces new systematic methods dealing with a complete end-to-end design process to production systems, where the uncertainty of product variety is mapped to product attributes and manufacturing processes, then mapped into a production line using product decomposition into systems, sub-systems, and modular assembly. Graph network (NW), change propagation index (CPI) and hybrid design structure matrix (HDSM) were introduced. Design structures matrix (DSM) and hybrid design structure matrix (HDSM) were used along with axiomatic design (AD) to ensure customer needs are translated into action. A hierarchal structure has been developed for a body-in-white (BIW) framing system. Implementation for best practice and coordination between processes in all design stages is a prerequisite for other function requirements. Knowing systems level interaction early in the product developments process is critical for design concept selection, and systems architectures decisions. However, existing methods that address the system\u27s interaction, such as the design structure matrix (DSM), are good to analyze the systems but cannot be used during conceptual synthesis when most important designs are made. Systems level knowledge is critical to the success of the design of large systems and needs to be captured at the early stage of the design. Results of using the proposed methodology on a real case study shows that the proper implementation of flexibility and reconfigurability in the production system increase the capability and shows significant improvements in throughputs of production systems. Real production data was used to redesign the assembly line of production systems using digital manufacturing (DM) and production simulation. Simulation model of the state of practice was developed using DELMIA\u27s Digital Manufacturing solution (IGRIP)

An overview of manufacturing knowledge sharing in the product development process

This paper provides an overview of reported research relevant to the management of manufacturing related knowledge and highlights the sharing of knowledge in the product development process. Previous research and concepts reported by international researchers and examples of the research projects carried out by the authors’ research teams will also be introduced. Publications reviewed are in the scope of information, communication and knowledge management technologies in product development and manufacturing. Some key concepts and issues in knowledge management are introduced first, as a foundation for the remainder of the review. The different approaches to knowledge management and knowledge sharing, and the different types of knowledge and key issues in the product development process are discussed. Then manufacturing knowledge and its application in the product development is reviewed. The focus is given to the discussion of the approaches to sharing manufacturing knowledge relating to the product development process and indicating the future challenges and research directions

Platform Design for Producibility: Early-Stage Modeling and Assessment Support

In industry, platforms are commonly adopted to reduce unique parts among a variety of distinct product variants, which have proven to be cost-effective within a single platform lifecycle. However, when the platform becomes obsolete or modifications are required to capture changing customer and production needs and requirements, manufacturers often spill tears over the time-consuming and costly processes of reusing and adapting the current platform structure into new. In design, such a platform structure of parts is rigid and often characterized by redundant data and weak relations among and across product variants and existing production machinery. To improve the ability to reuse design and production information for assessing new concepts more quickly, non-rigid platform representations of product concepts and existing production machinery are necessary but not clarified in literature and rarely implemented in industry.\ua0In this thesis, research studies have therefore been conducted to (1) investigate how early-stage information about a variety of products and existing production machinery can be represented to improve design-production responsiveness, and (2) develop methods and tools to model and generate a set of product-production alternatives as a basis for producibility assessments. A number of engineering case studies have been prepared by researchers and industrial specialists. Data, related to product and production variety and their mutual constraining factors, have been collected by interviewing industrial specialists, as well as examining corporate documents of both product design prerequisites and capabilities in production. The engineering case studies prepared have supported the creation of new knowledge and been used to demonstrate the usefulness of the improved models, methods and tool devised supporting platform design for producibility.\ua0As opposed to rigid parts, findings show that platform entities can be represented as reusable and adaptable system objects containing early-stage information of product variety, existing production resources and processes. This information mainly consists of a common product-production structure of relations among functional requirements, design solutions, mutual constraining factors and target values. By creating a complementary producibility system, including rule-based and simulation- based models, early-stage producibility assessments of product concepts can be supported. Findings emphasize the dynamic consideration of producibility during the platform design as customer and production needs and requirements frequently change.\ua0By employing the early-stage modeling and assessment support devised, manufacturers can (1) represent product and production variety as reusable and adaptable system objects with links to producibility constraints, available over generations of products and production systems and (2) dynamically and concurrently model, generate and assess product-production alternatives under producibility constraints during early design stages as a basis for putting inferior alternatives aside until new information becomes available. Theoretically, the number of costly and time-delaying late- stage modifications of product designs, production configurations or both can be reduced. However, to validate and generalize these hypothetical effects, they need to be measured in future studies

A knowledge based approach to integration of products, processes and reconfigurable automation resources

The success of next generation automotive companies will depend upon their ability to adapt to ever changing market trends thus becoming highly responsive. In the automotive sector, the assembly line design and reconfiguration is an especially critical and extremely complex job. The current research addresses some of the aspects of this activity under the umbrella of a larger ongoing research project called Business Driven Automation (BDA) project. The BDA project aims to carry out complete virtual 3D modeling-based verifications of the assembly line for new or revised products in contrast to the prevalent practice of manual evaluation of effects of product change on physical resources. [Continues.

An investigation of the mirroring of supply chain configuration modularity, and product modularity in contemporary supply chains

The introduction of new to market products is a challenge, in high technology markets, where speed and product variation are key considerations. High technology companies require the ability to simultaneously combine operational excellence, customer intimacy and product leadership. A lack of coordination between new product development (NPD), product planning and supply chain configuration (SCC) is a recognised cause of many early-life product failures. This research has one objective: to increase our understanding of the role of modularity in linking SCC and NPD decisions. The research incorporates general systems theory (GST) and knowledge-based theory (KBT), in mirroring product modularity (PM) and SCC modularity (SCCM) within contemporary supply networks. A systematic literature review (SLR) advocates the use of modular design, in linking these concepts and boosting the rate of innovation. The literature indicates that product architecture (PA) and SCC tend to be mirrored in modularity levels, post product launch, and this mirroring is desirable. The literature identified a gap in how SCCM is conceptualised, and how this mirroring manifests itself. These gaps are addressed in the empirical research conducted in project two, where the SCCM construct was developed and used to assess the manifestation and benefits of PM and SCCM mirroring across ten products (UoA) in five case companies across four industry sectors. Mirroring is evident, in six of the UoA, the remaining four UoA exhibit a medium level of mirroring, post product launch. The contribution to theory is a conceptualisation of SCCM where supply chain tiering is a main indicator. Propensity for modules to decouple; early supplier involvement, and a mirrored product and SCC life cycle perspective are the three causal linkages which enable mirroring of PM and SCCM post product launch. The SLR identified the use of co-development (CD), feedback (FC) and feedforward anticipatory control (FAC) at concept design to increase the mirroring of PM and SCCM, post product launch. In project three hypotheses were tested which advocate the use of these mechanisms, and the associated underlying mechanisms were investigated. The findings indicate use of CD and FAC, but a lack of FC, and mirroring support for platform design. The contribution to practice is an intervention framework applied at the concept stage that improves the coordination between NPD, SCC and product planning for new to market products

A manufacturing core concepts ontology to support knowledge sharing

Knowledge sharing across domains is key to bringing down the cost of production and the time to market of products. This thesis is directed to improve the knowledge sharing capability of the present systems that use information and communication technologies. Systems for different domains have structures that are made up of concepts and relations with different semantic interpretations. Therefore, knowledge sharing across such domains becomes an issue. Knowledge sharing across multiple domains can be facilitated through a system that can provide a shared understanding across multiple domains. This requires a rigorous common semantic base underlying the domains across which to share knowledge. [Continues.

Developing distributed manufacturing strategies from the perspective of a product-process matrix

In today’s highly competitive global business landscape, customers demand personalised products and responsive distribution systems, hence fuelling the concept of Distributed Manufacturing (DM) as a paradigm that suggests the geographical distribution of manufacturing systems adjacent to the markets to enable ‘production on demand’. To this end, the objective of this research is to explore the DM concept to inform firms about the dynamically changing manufacturing environment, along with the emerging opportunities, and support business stakeholders in implementing DM-oriented strategies to achieve digitalisation, personalisation, and localisation. More specifically, the present research builds upon the Dynamic Capability Theory (DCT) and conducts semi-structured interviews with a panel of 16 experts from the Fast-Moving Consumer Goods, Automotive, and Engineering industries to develop 12 exploratory industry cases. Our analysis highlights that companies can adopt three strategies to implement DM and realise shorter lead times and personalised product offerings, namely: (i) small-scale DM; (ii) in-house decoupled manufacturing; and (iii) outsourced decoupled manufacturing. However, the economic viability of the DM concept is identified as a significant barrier to relinquish the traditional centralised economies-of-scale. This research contributes by applying the DCT to the DM concept to advocate the viability and sustainability of manufacturing systems in the era of Industry 4.0. Pertaining to the originality of this research, limited work is available on the applicability of DM in industries, from the DCT perspective, to accomplish competitive advantages in the dynamic environment of manufacturing.his research has received funding from the EPSRC under Reference No. EP/K02888X/1, Project Title: “Engineering Driven Sustainable Supply Networks – A UK/India Collaborative Study”