Data-Driven Causal Modeling of the Manufacturing System

In manufacturing system management, the decisions are currently made on the base of ‘what if’ analysis. Here, the suitability of the model structure based on which a model of the activity will be built is crucial and it refers to multiple conditionality imposed in practice. Starting from this, finding the most suitable model structure is critical and represents a notable challenge. The paper deals with the building of suitable structures for a manufacturing system model by data-driven causal modelling. For this purpose, the manufacturing system is described by nominal jobs that it could involve and is identified by an original algorithm for processing the dataset of previous instances. The proposed causal modelling is applied in two case studies, whereby the first case study uses a dataset of artificial instances and the second case study uses a dataset of industrial instances. The causal modelling results prove its good potential for implementation in the industrial environment, with a very wide range of possible applications, while the obtained performance has been found to be good

Method for holistic optimization of the manufacturing process numerically described as low-dimensional database

The management of the production processes in an optimal manner involves the usage of knowledge about past jobs as reference for current decisions. During a manufacturing flow in every process step the process engineers could be in situations that request quick decisions based on comparison of different potential manufacturing paths. The Method for Holistic Optimization was developed in order to be used as support for decisions. The method was validated thru different studies. For the mentioned studies there were used artificial and real instances databases. The approach of the optimal management of the manufacturing processes was developed in the current study in order to estimate the consequences of a decision, are used known methods, such as: NN modeling, big data analysis, statistics, etc. In all these cases, the database size plays an essential role in terms of estimation quality. The main purpose of the study is to analyze and validate that the Method for Holistic Optimization is feasible to be used in case a decision-maker uses a reduced database. This can be a significant advantage compared with other methods. The study it is performed using an instance database which was artificially generated in case of a turning process. The obtained results are consistent and promising

Study on the Application of the Holistic Optimization Method of the Manufacturing Process in the Case of a Reduced Instances Database

The optimal management of the manufacturing processes is achieved through a set of optimal decisions, which must be made for choosing the best way to follow, every time we find ourselves in a point from which several potential manufacturing paths start. A dedicated method, namely the Holistic Optimization Method has been already developed in this purpose, and validated in a number of studies based on artificial and real instances databases. In the current papers that approach the optimal management of the manufacturing processes, in order to estimate the consequences of a decision, are used known methods, such as: NN modeling, big data analysis, statistics, etc. In all these cases, the database size plays an essential role in terms of estimation quality. The present study aims to prove the feasibility of applying the Holistic Optimization Method when the decision-maker does not dispose of a consistent database. This can be a significant advantage relative to the other methods. The study is performed using an artificially generated instances database in the case of a turning process, and the results obtained are promising