The State-of-the-Art and Prospects of Learning Factories

AbstractChangeability of manufacturing systems is an important enabler for offering large variety of competitive products to satisfy customers’ requirements. Learning factories, as teaching and research environments, can play a key role in developing new solutions for changeability, transferring them to the industry and using them in educating engineers. The results of a survey of existing learning factories and their characteristics are presented. Their use in research, teaching and industrial projects is analyzed. A novel scheme to classify those systems with regard to their design, products and their changeability characteristics is outlined. Conclusions about the future of learning factories are drawn

Symbiotic Design of Products and Manufacturing Systems Using Biological Analysis

Organised by: Cranfield UniversityChanges in manufacturing systems are oftenly driven by product design variations that exist at specific points in time, and gradual product design changes that appear over time. Further interactions take place to fully utilize established manufacturing system capabilities when considering product future designs. This is common in eco-systems when two or more different species co-evolve simultaneously, and it has inspired the development of a new model to capture the symbiotic relationship between products and their manufacturing systems based on Cladistics which is commonly used in biology. The obtained hierarchal order was analyzed in depth to track the product changes record and guide the next design steps to benefit from system capabilities.Mori Seiki – The Machine Tool Compan

Product-Process Modelling as an Enabler of Manufacturing Changeability

Part 5: Smart Production for Mass CustomizationInternational audienceToday’s competitive environment demands increased product variety, more rapid product introductions and increasingly efficient operations in manufacturing. Changeable manufacturing, encompassing reconfigurability and flexibility, provides a mechanisms for addressing these new demands, however there is a significant gap between the concept of changeable manufacturing, and what is actually enabled through operational methods. This paper analyzes how integrated modelling of products and processes can be applied when designing, managing, and operating changeable manufacturing systems. This is structured using generic changeability classes and generic changeability enablers. It is concluded that integrated product-process modelling has a potential to support changeability, especially within the classes reconfigurability, flexibility and transformability. However a theory-practice gap still exists, calling for more research on specific methods and feasibility of such approach

Achieving Responsiveness in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises through Assemble To Order Strategy

Part 1: Knowledge-Based Performance ImprovementInternational audienceWith an aggressive economic competition on a global scale, more educated and demanding customers, and a rapid pace of change in process technology, responsiveness in manufacturing is becoming a key competitive advantage. The present paper examines how responsiveness can be achieved in SMEs operating according to an Assemble to Order strategy. The framework – proposed starting from literature analysis and tested through a first case study – will be used in future works to drive a systematic analysis of responsiveness in SMEs