Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2003

This report summarizes the research activities of the Air Force Institute of Technology’s Graduate School of Engineering and Management. It describes research interests and faculty expertise; lists student theses/dissertations; identifies research sponsors and contributions; and outlines the procedures for contacting the school. Included in the report are: faculty publications, conference presentations, consultations, and funded research projects. Research was conducted in the areas of Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, Electrical Engineering and Electro-Optics, Computer Engineering and Computer Science, Systems and Engineering Management, Operational Sciences, and Engineering Physics

Implementation of TPM and 6S Lean in Sonafi

In today’s industrial scenario huge losses/wastage occur in the manufacturing shop floor. This waste is due to operators, maintenance personal, process, tooling problems and non-availability of components in time etc. Other forms of waste includes idle machines, idle manpower, break down machine, rejected parts etc are all examples of waste. The quality related waste are of significant importance as they matter the company in terms of time, material and the hard earned reputation of the company. There are also other invisible wastes like operating the machines below the rated speed, startup loss, break down of the machines and bottle necks in process. Zero oriented concepts such as zero tolerance for waste, defects, break down and zero accidents are becoming a pre-requisite in the manufacturing and assembly industry. A fundamental component of world-class manufacturing is that of the Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), which has been recognized as one of the significant operation strategy to regain the production losses due to equipment inefficiency. TPM is the methodology that aims to increase both availability of the existing equipment hence reducing the need for the further capital investment. The automotive sector constitutes one of the most demanding activities in the global market, since it requires a constant increase in productivity, both in the automobile industry as well as in the companies whose manufacture its components. This sector is currently set within an economic framework where there is a relentless search for costs reduction and an increase in productivity with minimal investment. In order to meet these requirements, companies have sought to optimise their products and processes to ensure higher profits. The main aim is to develop a framework with the capability of assessing the impact of implementing TPM in a company which supplies die-casting products to the automotive sector. The major action was taken in the autonomous and curative maintenance. Due to the undertaken improvements, there was a 2% increase in OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness) on line AA3. Along with TPM, 6S Lean is also implemented that is one of the main points of the new standard for automotive industry IATF 16949:2016.Actualmente, qualquer perda/desperdício afeta a competetividade das organizações. Este desperdício deve-se, muitas vezes, à falta de manutenção e consequente indisponibilidade de equipamentos. Outras formas de desperdício são o excesso de produção, o processamento inapropriado, os defeitos, roturas de stocks, etc. Todos os tipos de desperdício são relevantes, contudo os relacionados com a qualidade são de importância significativa, uma vez que têm influência na reputação da empresa. Tolerância zero para o desperdício e para o número de acidentes tem-se revelado um pré-requisito na indústria de produção e montagem. Um aliado no cumprimento deste pré-requisito é a Manutenção Produtiva Total (TPM). A TPM é uma metodologia que visa aumentar a disponibilidade do equipamento existente, reduzindo assim a necessidade de mais investimento de capital. O setor automóvel constitui uma das atividades mais exigentes do mercado global, pois exige um aumento constante de produtividade, tanto na indústria automobilística como nas empresas que fabricam os seus componentes. Atualmente, este setor está inserido numa estrutura económica que procura incessantemente a redução de custos e um aumento na produtividade com um investimento mínimo. Para atender a esses requisitos, as empresas têm procurado otimizar os seus produtos e processos para garantir maiores lucros. Neste documento, apresentam-se os resultados de estudo desenvolvido com o objetivo de aprimorar os procedimentos no setor de manutenção de uma empresa que fornece produtos de fundição para o setor automóvel. O principal objetivo foi aumentar a disponibilidade de máquinas e equipamentos através da implementação da metodologia TPM. As alterações introduzidas na linha AA3 resultaram num aumento de 2% no valor do indicador de desempenho Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). Juntamente com a metodologia TPM foi impementada a metodologia 6S Lean, vista como uma estratégia abrangente, poderosa, eficaz e adequada para a solução de todos os tipos de problemas relacionados com a melhoria de processos e produtos

Air Force Institute of Technology Research Report 2017

This Research Report presents the FY18 research statistics and contributions of the Graduate School of Engineering and Management (EN) at AFIT. AFIT research interests and faculty expertise cover a broad spectrum of technical areas related to USAF needs, as reflected by the range of topics addressed in the faculty and student publications listed in this report. In most cases, the research work reported herein is directly sponsored by one or more USAF or DOD agencies. AFIT welcomes the opportunity to conduct research on additional topics of interest to the USAF, DOD, and other federal organizations when adequate manpower and financial resources are available and/or provided by a sponsor. In addition, AFIT provides research collaboration and technology transfer benefits to the public through Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs)

Six Sigma

In the new millennium the increasing expectation of customers and products complexity has forced companies to find new solutions and better alternatives to improve the quality of their products. Lean and Six Sigma methodology provides the best solutions to many problems and can be used as an accelerator in industry, business and even health care sectors. Due to its flexible nature, the Lean and Six Sigma methodology was rapidly adopted by many top and even small companies. This book provides the necessary guidance for selecting, performing and evaluating various procedures of Lean and Six Sigma. In the book you will find personal experiences in the field of Lean and Six Sigma projects in business, industry and health sectors

Design and Management of Manufacturing Systems

Although the design and management of manufacturing systems have been explored in the literature for many years now, they still remain topical problems in the current scientific research. The changing market trends, globalization, the constant pressure to reduce production costs, and technical and technological progress make it necessary to search for new manufacturing methods and ways of organizing them, and to modify manufacturing system design paradigms. This book presents current research in different areas connected with the design and management of manufacturing systems and covers such subject areas as: methods supporting the design of manufacturing systems, methods of improving maintenance processes in companies, the design and improvement of manufacturing processes, the control of production processes in modern manufacturing systems production methods and techniques used in modern manufacturing systems and environmental aspects of production and their impact on the design and management of manufacturing systems. The wide range of research findings reported in this book confirms that the design of manufacturing systems is a complex problem and that the achievement of goals set for modern manufacturing systems requires interdisciplinary knowledge and the simultaneous design of the product, process and system, as well as the knowledge of modern manufacturing and organizational methods and techniques

Developing Low Carbon Supply Networks: Influence, Measurement, and Improvement

Climate change has emerged as one of the most serious challenges faced by human beings. As manufacturing globalisation involves more and more emerging nations, a greater proportion of CO2 emissions is generated from developing countries. The dilemma between fast industrial development and carbon reduction makes firms in developing nations reluctant to take serious commitment and actions in CO2 emission reduction in their global manufacturing practices. From a theoretical perspective, low-carbon supply networks research is also still in its infant stage and needs more explorations and development. Therefore this research aims to address the research question: “How can supply networks in developing countries be developed to reduce carbon emission?” Especially it focuses on: • An influence process to engage companies in developing countries to reduce carbon emission • A typology of carbon emission assessments in supply networks • An initial process of implementing carbon-reduction projects in supply network The research adopts theory building approach based on multiple case studies. The units of analysis are carbon reduction project of focal firms and initiatives of Non-Government Organizations (NGO). Drawing upon the cases, this research develops a general framework for developing low-carbon supply network, including three parts namely network influence, network CO2 measurement, and network CO2 improvement (IMI), with the three process models accordingly proposed. In the ‘influence’ process, based on resource dependence theory (RDT), this research illustrates a categorization of influence choices and a typology of influence pathways, which both underpin the four-step influence procedure proposed later. In the ‘measurement’ process, this research proposes a goal-oriented carbon footprint measurement guideline. In the “improvement’ process, an initial framework to classify carbon reduction projects and implementation process model of these projects are both built based on the analysis of primary case studies and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) database which contains corporates’ carbon reduction practices. Overall this research makes contributions in the following aspects: (1) this research advocates IMI framework as a pathway to de-carbonize supply networks, contributing to manufacturing system’s evolution to sustainable paradigm; (2) It integrates the institutional, stakeholder and network theory in the context of de-carbonization, and extends the research scope of operations management; (3) The research contributes to life cycle assessment (LCA) literature by exploring supply network coordination during the LCA procedure; (4) The research also contributes to green supply chain literature by providing insights from firms’ de-carbonization projects in supply network. (5) In practice, the IMI three-process models can help practitioners to implement de-carbonization management, serving as a preliminary guideline to follow. The potential audience of this research can be MNCs, NGOs, government bodies, consultants, and any organization or individual who aim to change industrial system in the pursuit of climate change mitigation

Sustainability Benefits Analysis of CyberManufacturing Systems

Confronted with growing sustainability awareness, mounting environmental pressure, meeting modern customers’ demand and the need to develop stronger market competitiveness, the manufacturing industry is striving to address sustainability-related issues in manufacturing. A new manufacturing system called CyberManufacturing System (CMS) has a great potential in addressing sustainability issues by handling manufacturing tasks differently and better than traditional manufacturing systems. CMS is an advanced manufacturing system where physical components are fully integrated and seamlessly networked with computational processes. The recent developments in Internet of Things, Cloud Computing, Fog Computing, Service-Oriented Technologies, etc., all contribute to the development of CMS. Under the context of this new manufacturing paradigm, every manufacturing resource or capability is digitized, registered and shared with all the networked users and stakeholders directly or through the Internet. CMS infrastructure enables intelligent behaviors of manufacturing components and systems such as self-monitoring, self-awareness, self-prediction, self-optimization, self-configuration, self-scalability, self-remediating and self-reusing. Sustainability benefits of CMS are generally mentioned in the existing researches. However, the existing sustainability studies of CMS focus a narrow scope of CMS (e.g., standalone machines and specific industrial domains) or partial aspects of sustainability analysis (e.g., solely from energy consumption or material consumption perspectives), and thus no research has comprehensively addressed the sustainability analysis of CMS. The proposed research intends to address these gaps by developing a comprehensive definition, architecture, functionality study of CMS for sustainability benefits analysis. A sustainability assessment framework based on Distance-to-Target methodology is developed to comprehensively and objectively evaluate manufacturing systems’ sustainability performance. Three practical cases are captured as examples for instantiating all CMS functions and analyzing the advancements of CMS in addressing concrete sustainability issues. As a result, CMS has proven to deliver substantial sustainability benefits in terms of (i) the increment of productivity, production quality, profitability & facility utilization and (ii) the reduction in Working-In-Process (WIP) inventory level & material consumption compared with the alternative traditional manufacturing system paradigms

Discrete Event Simulations

Considered by many authors as a technique for modelling stochastic, dynamic and discretely evolving systems, this technique has gained widespread acceptance among the practitioners who want to represent and improve complex systems. Since DES is a technique applied in incredibly different areas, this book reflects many different points of view about DES, thus, all authors describe how it is understood and applied within their context of work, providing an extensive understanding of what DES is. It can be said that the name of the book itself reflects the plurality that these points of view represent. The book embraces a number of topics covering theory, methods and applications to a wide range of sectors and problem areas that have been categorised into five groups. As well as the previously explained variety of points of view concerning DES, there is one additional thing to remark about this book: its richness when talking about actual data or actual data based analysis. When most academic areas are lacking application cases, roughly the half part of the chapters included in this book deal with actual problems or at least are based on actual data. Thus, the editor firmly believes that this book will be interesting for both beginners and practitioners in the area of DES