Industrial networks: capturing changeability?

Industrial networks offer great opportunities for adapting their processes and structures to changing circumstances, expressed by the criteria of innovation, speed and flexibility or changeability. Especially, more integrated approaches, like Dispersed Manufacturing Networks, present new challenges to decision-making, during all stages of product development and manufacturing, at strategic, tactical and operational levels for all companies involved. As a response to these challenges, this paper presents three models (Innovation Impact Point Model, Collaboration Model and Continuous Outsourcing Model) and a method for reconfiguration that support decision making in industrial networks. Together with the longer existing models for the Order Entry Points, these approaches will facilitate successful exploitation of industrial networks. However, many current approaches rely on the conversion to networks of models that fit the monolithic company. The characteristics of industrial networks call for theories and tools that address the instability caused by the interaction between the constituent agents and the dynamics for capturing market opportunities

Developments and Trends in Monitoring and Control of Machining Processes

This paper describes conventional and enhanced methods for the monitoring and control of machining processes with a limitation to cutting and grinding machine tools. The differences between the various methods and the corresponding equipment, software and strategies are considered as well as the reasons for the limited success of some of the existing systems in use. Furthermore, the requirements of future monitoring and control systems are worked out. Therefore a systematic analysis of present and future sytems and their components is made. Finally, the function of machining process planning and its influence on the performance and the reliability of the process is discussed

Opportunities in Abrasive Water Jet Machining

In the recent years the interest in loose abrasive machining processes as efficient, flexible processes is rising. This paper describes the development of a ‘coherent set of models’ for a category of these processes, namely those which use high velocity of the particles to obtain the necessary energy to machine a workpiece surface. The usability of this ‘coherent set of models’ will be explained with its application in the field of high-pressure abrasive waterjet cutting. At the end of this paper a forecast to the application of this modelling technique to other loose abrasive machining processes as Micro-Abrasive Air Jet Machining is given