Powertrain Assembly Lines Automatic Configuration Using a Knowledge Based Engineering Approach

Technical knowledge and experience are intangible assets crucial for competitiveness. Knowledge is particularly important when it comes to complex design activities such as the configuration of manufacturing systems. The preliminary design of manufacturing systems relies significantly on experience of designers and engineers, lessons learned and complex sets of rules and is subject to a huge variability of inputs and outputs and involves decisions which must satisfy many competing requirements. This complicated design process is associated with high costs, long lead times and high probability of risks and reworks. It is estimated that around 20% of the designer’s time is dedicated to searching and analyzing past available knowledge, while 40% of the information required for design is identified through personally stored information. At a company level, the design of a new production line does not start from scratch. Based on the basic requirements of the customers, engineers use their own knowledge and try to recall past layout ideas searching for production line designs stored locally in their CAD systems [1]. A lot of knowledge is already stored, and has been used for a long time and evolved over time. There is a need to retrieve this knowledge and integrate it into a common and reachable framework. Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) and knowledge representation techniques are considered to be a successful way to tackle this design problem at an industrial level. KBE is, in fact, a research field that studies methodologies and technologies for capturing and re-using product and process engineering knowledge to achieve automation of repetitive design tasks [2]. This study presents a methodology to support the configuration of powertrain assembly lines, reducing design times by introducing a best practice for production systems provider companies. The methodology is developed in a real industrial environment, within Comau S.p.A., introducing the role of a knowledge engineer. The approach includes extraction of existing technical knowledge and implementation in a knowledge-based software framework. The macro system design requirements (e.g. cycle time, production mix, etc.) are taken as input. A user driven procedure guides the designer in the definition of the macro layout-related decisions and in the selection of the equipment to be allocated within the project. The framework is then integrated with other software tools allowing the first phase design of the line including a technical description and a 2D and 3D CAD line layout. The KBE application is developed and tested on a specific powertrain assembly case study. Finally, a first validation among design engineers is presented, comparing traditional and new approach and estimating a cost-benefit analysis useful for future possible KBE implementations

New mathematical model for assessment of concurrent engineering.

Recently, global competition has led to shorter product life cycles and increased technological sophistication. Products are becoming more complex due to rapid technological developments and increasing consumer demands for lower costs, greater variety, and greater performance. At the same time the proliferation of new technologies is rendering products obsolete at an increasingly rapid pace. These market and technology trends lead to the emerging of concurrent engineering. This thesis firstly will give a definition and briefly introduction of concurrent engineering, including its fundamentals, and the benefits of concurrent engineering, its difficulties and caveats. After that this thesis will introduce an implementation method for concurrent engineering. This thesis will focus on concurrent engineering assessment model; the purposes of concurrent engineering assessment model are providing information about your current state of affairs. It describes how things are done now and how well they are being done. Firstly, two existing assessment models will be introduced. The existing assessment models are focused on the present situation; they only assess the present situation, they do not assess the past situation, and the future situation; most of these models look like a questionnaire, the assessment is highly subjective and not very accurate. This thesis will focus on constructing a mathematical assessment model, making the assessment much more objective and accurate. All in all, the major contribution of this thesis research is the constructing of the mathematical assessment model. This new model describes the history and the future of company, assessing the company\u27s performance, exposing practical problems and identifying potential improvements.Dept. of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2006 .J53. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-01, page: 0436. Thesis (M.A.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2006

ANALYSIS OF PART CONSOLIDATION TECHNIQUES FOR AUTOMOTIVE BODY IN WHITE PANELS BASED ON ADVANCED SHEET METAL FORMING TECHNOLOGIES

The automotive industry is looking to move from mass production to mass customization in order to manufacture and sell a variety of products in different markets on a global scale. This requires a robust and cost effective manufacturing system which would help design new products in the shortest possible lead time. This thesis tries to investigate the current sheet metal forming process for body in white, identify the limitations and propose an alternative which would help the industry cut down product lead time and costs. Decision making tools are used to identify the technical requirements of a BIW manufacturing system and optimize the same. Part consolidation techniques are studied in detail and the various means to achieve them are investigated. Industrial origami¨ is proposed as an alternative to automotive stamping and a means to achieve part consolidation. Origami joints and their design features were modeled using cad tools and their load bearing and strength characteristics are compared to that of stamped joints using finite element analysis simulations. A bill of materials of a small sedan is constructed to identify the opportunities for part consolidation and process substitution of stamping using origami

Q'@gile: quantum agile manufacture of internal combustion engines

Current trends in the automotive industry towards fuel efficient and low emission vehicles, are dictated by more environmental friendly customers, more strict environmental legislation, rising fuel costs and intensive competition. These factors are pressuring vehicle manufacturers to speed up R&D and improve the efficiency and flexibility of their manufacturing operations so that improved products can be introduced over shortened timeframes. Recent advances have been focused on improving the design of internal combustion engines, coupled with research into alternative fuels and related new forms of vehicle propulsion. Natural impacts of these advances have been shorter engine lifetimes, increased pace of engine innovations, and significant changes in propulsion type share: in Europe the diesel engine share is increasing relative to that of petrol engines while in the US and Japan hybrids are becoming popular. In the long-term fuel cell- and hydrogen-fuelled vehicles may largely make internal combustion engines obsolete. [Continues.

A mathematical model development for the lateral collapse of octagonal tubes

. Many researches has been done on the lateral collapse of tube. However, the previous researches only focus on cylindrical and square tubes. Then a research has been done discovering the collapse behaviour of hexagonal tube and the mathematic model of the deformation behaviour had been developed [8]. The purpose of this research is to study the lateral collapse behaviour of symmetric octagonal tubes and hence to develop a mathematical model of the collapse behaviour of these tubes. For that, a predictive mathematical model was developed and a finite element analysis procedure was conducted for the lateral collapse behaviour of symmetric octagonal tubes. Lastly, the mathematical model was verified by using the finite element analysis simulation results. It was discovered that these tubes performed different deformation behaviour than the cylindrical tube. Symmetric octagonal tubes perform 2 phases of elastic - plastic deformation behaviour patterns. The mathematical model had managed to show the fundamental of the deformation behaviour of octagonal tubes. However, further studies need to be conducted in order to further improve on the proposed mathematical mode

Beyond the Big Leave: The Future of U.S. Automotive Human Resources

Based on industry interviews and trends analyses, forecasts employment levels and hiring nationwide and in Michigan through 2016, and compiles automakers' input on technical needs, hiring criteria, and suggestions for training and education curricula

Automation, Digitalization, and Changes in Occupational Structures in the Automobile Industry in Germany, the United States, and Japan: A Brief History from the Early 1990s Until 2018

In the current public discussion, it is considered certain that we are living in a time of rapidly advancing automation, which is driven in particular by the use of robots. Accordingly, many academic publications use robot density as the central indicator of automation. The present study challenges this perspective. It examines two central questions: First, what approaches to automation and digitalization have been pursued in the automotive industry in Germany, Japan and the USA? Second, how have employment and its occupational composition in the automotive industry developed in the three countries? The first part of the study focuses on the development of automation and digitalization approaches in the automotive industry from the early 1990s until today. It combines a qualitative analysis of press articles and a quantitative evaluation of the development of the stock of industrial robots from 1993 to 2018 based on the statistics of the International Federation of Robotics. The second part of the study focuses on the change in employment structures using occupational statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (USA), the Federal Employment Agency (Germany) and the Statistics Bureau of Japan. The study questions the perception of an automation-related threat to employment and especially to production employment. At the same time, it discusses developments in Germany, Japan and the USA in comparison and highlights differences in automation and digitalization approaches as well as different paths of change in employment structures