Human system modelling in support of manufacturing enterprise design and change

Organisations comprise human and technical systems that typically perform a variety of business, engineering and production roles. Human systems comprise individuals, people groups and teams that work systematically to conceive, implement, develop and manage the purposes of any enterprise in response to customer requirements. Recently attention has been paid to modelling aspects of people working within production systems, with a view to improving: production performance, effective resource allocation and optimum resource management. In the research reported, graphical and computer executable models of people have been conceived and used in support of human systems engineering. The approach taken has been to systematically decompose and represent processes so that elemental production and management activities can be modelled as explicit descriptions of roles that human systems can occupy as role holders. First of all, a preliminary modelling method (MM1) was proposed for modelling human systems in support of engineering enterprise; then MM1 was implemented and tested in a case study company 1. Based on findings of this exploratory research study an improved modelling method (MM2) was conceived and instrumented. Here characterising customer related product dynamic impacts extended MM1 modelling concepts and methods and related work system changes. MM2 was then tested in case study company 2 to observe dynamic behaviours of selected system models derived from actual company knowledge and data. Case study 2 findings enabled MM2 to be further improved leading to MM3. MM3 improvements stem from the incorporation of so-called DPU (Dynamic Producer Unit) concepts, related to the modelling of human and technical resource system components . Case study 4 models a human system for targeted users i.e. production managers etc to facilitate analysis of human configuration and also cost modelling. Modelling approaches MM2, MM3 and also Case Study 4 add to knowledge about ways of facilitating quantitative analysis and comparison between different human system configurations. These new modelling methods allow resource system behaviours to be matched to specific, explicitly defined, process-oriented requirements drawn from manufacturing workplaces currently operating in general engineering, commercial furniture and white goods industry sectors

Impact of the contemporary manufacturing environment on cost accounting information systems "an Egyptian case study"

This thesis examines the relevance of current cost accounting systems to the manufacturing environment. Egyptian manufacturing companies in the ex-public industrial sector have suffered from relatively various obstacles, with problems in production planning and control in particular. These impediments were responsible for negative effects on costs and caused low profitability for these companies in most years. Cost accounting systems were basically established for the purpose of preparing financial statements not for operational control.The literature was reviewed to explore changes in the manufacturing environment with emphasis on the developments in production planning and control systems and also to investigate the developments in cost accounting systems.To examine this research phenomenon empirically, a case study was conducted in an Egyptian EI-Nasr automotive manufacturing company. Data was collected from published and unpublished reports and by semi-structured interviews within the case company.The thesis is divided into two main parts: Part I to cover the literature review in this area. Part II for the case study analysis. The study covered three major areas of analysis. First is an overview of all factors which shape the old and new manufacturing environments and the developments in the systems of production planning and control. Second is a detailed investigation of the traditional and new cost accounting systems. Third is the main findings and conclusion including exposing the relationship between the different planning and control systems and the various cost accounting systems. It also includes a wide range of suggestions for improving the cost accounting systems of the studied case company.The major findings of this study were that manufacturing environment played a significant role in designing cost accounting systems. It concluded that planning capabilities of the company and suppliers play a significant role in the process of cost reduction and improve the competitive position

Conceptual design and simulated operation of economies of scope and scale manufacturing enterprises

Much of industry is seeking scope economies, but this requires more complex and flexible product realisation. Modelling technologies have potential to support the life cycle engineering of both Economies of Scope and Scale (EoSS) manufacturing systems. However when companies operate in dynamic environments it is not sufficient to model manufacturing systems in isolation. Rather a holistic modelling methodology is needed which can create structural and behavioural models of dependencies between the manufacturing systems, and the business and engineering environments in which they operate; so that a suitable balance between economies of scope and scale can be achieved. This thesis describes the conception and development of a step wised Extended Modelling Methodology (EMM) which facilitates reasoning, and related decision making, about EoSS manufacturing systems. The EMM was conceived from exploratory research in two SMEs, following which it was applied and case tested in a large manufacturing company. Little academic attention to date has been paid to theorising about the link between ‘Economies of Scope and Scale (EoSS) phenomenon' and ‘manufacturing systems design'. Hence many questions about EoSS manufacturing remain unanswered, such as: (1) academic communities need to know what EoSS actually means and how state-of-the-art modelling can support qualitative and quantitative analysis of EoSS system phenomenon; and (2) industry needs to know how they can benefit from EoSS, what attended costs they might incur, and what best balance between scope and scale economies can be achieved. With these general requirements in mind the thesis reports on the conception and industrial application of the EMM. This has: (A) developed new ideas about EoSS, which can be used to characterise EoSS phenomenon; (B) introduced a new way of visualising architectural aspects of EoSS at multiple-levels of abstraction; and (C) with reference to case studies has illustrated the use of multi-level modelling to enable predictions to be made about EoSS benefits and costs.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Developing Statistical Models to Assess Productivity in the Automotive Manufacturing Sector

The purpose of this study is to identify the most important activity in a value chain, effective factors, their impact, and to find estimation models of the most well-known productivity measurement, Hours per Vehicle (HPV), in the automotive industry in North American manufacturing plants. HPV is a widely recognized production performance indicator that is used by a significant percentage of worldwide automakers. During a comprehensive literature review, 13 important factors that affect HPV were defined as launching a new vehicle, ownership, car segment, model types, year, annual available working days, vehicle variety, flexibility, annual production volume, car assembly and capacity (CAC) utilization, outsourcing, platform strategy, and hourly employee\u27s percentage.;Data used in this study was from North American plants that participated in the Harbour\u27s survey from 1999 to 2007. Data are synthesized using a uniform methodology from information supplied by the plants and supplemented with plant visits by Harbour Consulting auditors. Overall, there are 682 manufacturing plants in the statistical sample from 10 different multinational automakers.;Several robust and advanced statistical methods were used to analyze the data and derive the best possible HPV regression equations. The final statistical models were validated through exhaustive cross-validation procedures. Mixed integer distributed ant colony optimization (MIDACO) algorithm, a nonlinear programming algorithm, that can robustly solve problems with critical function properties like high non-convexity, non-differentiability, flat spots, and even stochastic noise was used to achieve HPV target value.;During the study period, the HPV was reduced 48 minutes on the average each year. Annual production volume, flexible manufacturing, outsourcing, and platform strategy improve HPV. However, vehicle variety, model types, available annual working days, CAC, percentage of the hourly employees, and launching a new model penalize HPV. Japanese plants are the benchmark regarding the HPV followed by joint ventures and Americans. On average, the HPV is lower for Japanese and joint ventures in comparison to American automakers by about 1.83 and 1.28 hours, respectively. Launching a new model and adding a new variety in body styles or chassis configurations raises the HPV, depending on the car class; however, manufacturing plants compensate for this issue by using platform sharing and flexible manufacturing strategies. While launching a new vehicle common platform sharing, flexible manufacturing, and more salaried employees (lower hourly) strategies will help carmakers to overcome the effect of launching new vehicles productivity penalization to some extent.;The research investigates current strategies that help automakers to enhance their production performance and reduce their productivity gap. The HPV regression equations that are developed in this research may be used effectively to help carmakers to set guidelines to improve their productivity with respect to internal and external constraints, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats