A comparative study of the operations strategies of globally- and domestically-oriented New Zealand manufacturing firms

There has been much written on why and how firms become involved in entering international markets. There is less material on the production/operations actions taken by such firms. This paper investigates the differences in competitive capabilities and manufacturing performance improvement plans between globally-oriented and domestically-oriented firms. It uses data collected from 140 New Zealand manufacturing companies. The results indicate that both groups emphasize the same competitive capabilities, but the globally-oriented group is placing more emphasis on some action plans involving quality assurance, improving existing processes and design for manufacture. Their most favoured action plans are similar to those of firms in most advanced manufacturing countries which participate in the Manufacturing Futures Project.     

An option generation and selection methodology for process equipment selection

The option generation and selection (OGS) methodology forms part of a general approach for the design of agile chemical plants based on business, product and process knowledge, with support from information models. This paper describes an equipment OGS tool that encompasses the principles of combinatorial process and plant design. The main components of the methodology are: an equipment option generation model described as a set of objects, and the net relationships between them, and an equipment option selection model which consists of procedures for equipment selection. The two models are supported by databases containing information specific to each equipment type, the concept on which the equipment is based, and relationships with other equipment types. Robust, systematic and complete forms of these models can be used as the basis of an expert system for process equipment design, with equipment selected using these tools satisfying the requirements of both specific processes and families of processes (that contain common features, similar functional groups or similar raw material requirements for process operations). Application of the methodology also allows the evaluation of options for reconfiguring existing plant.     

Optimization of process plans using a constraint-based tabu search approach

A computer-aided process planning system should ideally generate and optimize process plans to ensure the application of good manufacturing practices and maintain the consistency of the desired functional specifications of a part during its production processes. Crucial processes, such as selecting machining resources, determining set-up plans and sequencing operations of a part should be considered simultaneously to achieve global optimal solutions. In this paper, these processes are integrated and modelled as a constraint-based optimization problem, and a tabu search-based approach is proposed to solve it effectively. In the optimization model, costs of the utilized machines and cutting tools, machine changes, tool changes, set-ups and departure from good manufacturing practices (penalty function) are the optimization evaluation criteria. Precedence constraints from the geometric and manufacturing interactions between features and their related operations in a part are defined and classified according to their effects on the plan feasibility and processing quality. A hybrid constraint-handling method is developed and embedded in the optimization algorithm to conduct the search efficiently in a large-size constraint-based space. Case studies, which are used for comparing this approach with the genetic algorithm and simulated annealing approaches, and the proposed constraint-handling method and other constraint methods, are discussed to highlight the performance of this approach in terms of the solution quality and computational efficiency of the algorithm.     

e-Business and Disintegration of the Semiconductor Industry Value Chain

This paper examines the influence of Internet-based e-Business applications on the vertical separation of design, manufacture, equipment production and process development in the global semiconductor industry. Vertical specialization has contributed to the rapid growth of semiconductor manufacturing capacity in Southeast Asia and the creation of new forms of international production networks linking design and manufacturing specialists. Although these trends began before the development of Internet-related e-Business applications, the Internet is facilitating these trends and their effects on the geographic distribution of manufacturing capacity. At the same time, however, many of the opportunities created by e-Business applications for vertically specialized firms should prove equally advantageous to integrated device manufacturers. Obstacles to e-Business applications in the global semiconductor industry include standardsrelated issues, data-security concerns, and the needs for far-reaching internal reorganization of business processes, especially by smaller firms. All of these obstacles suggest that the adoption of e-Business and the realization of its productivity benefits or cost efficiencies are likely to occur slowly.     

Process parameters determination for precision manufacturing

Conventional process planning in manufacturing operations presents fixed process means and process tolerances for all operations and allows actual outputs to be distributed around these fixed values, as long as the final outputs fall within acceptable specifications. Some approaches attempt to maximize the process tolerances of all manufacturing operations for part production. Other approaches intend to minimize the tolerance cost or quality loss based on known functions. Most of them consider process mean and process tolerance as independent decision variables in process planning, with the condition that the resultant working dimensions are equal to the design target values of blueprint dimensions. These approaches assume that there is no process drift or deterioration. However, these conventional approaches are inappropriate for small‐volume, high‐value and precision processing, particularly of a complex part. Hence this study introduces an alternative approach to the tolerance‐balancing problem that does not provide specific objective functions, which determines process means and process tolerances simultaneously and adjusts them sequentially. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Manufacturing strategy,the business environment,and operations performance in small low-tech firms

This paper reports on a ten-year study of ten manufacturing companies in New Zealand. Over the period the firms endured a turbulent environment where they were subject to large changes in exchange rate, and some faced forced changes in products, and markets as a result of changes in ownership and government policy. The paper examines the stability of manufacturing strategies in such an environment, the emphasis placed on improvement initiatives and what impact these decisions had on manufacturing performance. The study uses a multi-case, longitudinal approach. It found the strategy configurations were not stable and many firms moved towards a price-based configuration, contrary to other literature. The more successful firms put greater investments into infrastructural categories of their operations strategy in accordance with the resource-based view. Operations performance indicators showed some improvement on manufacturing costs but other indicators showed no real pattern.     

Researching the design/production interface: product specifications

To learn more about the relationship between design and production functions in manufacturing firms, a number of relevant topics are being researched. This paper concentrates on one aspect—the product specification (design brief)—and examines different approaches to its compilation, based on interviews with 20 firms and the observed experiences of four companies.     

Industry 4.0: Current practice and challenges in Malaysian manufacturing firms

This research employed a qualitative approach to discuss the current practice and challenges of Malaysian manufacturing firms in the implementation of Industry 4.0. The study examined data from seven manufacturing companies pursuing Industry 4.0 initiatives to identify various options for their strategies. The study found that the implementation of Industry 4.0 in the manufacturing firms is still in the exploratory stage. The companies involved in this study were discovered to conduct exploration using an adaptive-like framework. That is, throughout the process, the majority of the subjects are 'trying and adding' Industry 4.0 to their operations. Their trial-and-error approach is based on what is feasible and effective in their manufacturing environment. Overall, the investigation determined that data management and integration, as well as personnel re-education, were the respondents' primary operational challenges.     

Conceptions and operational use of value and waste in lean manufacturing – an interpretivist approach

In this article, we explore how the key concepts of lean manufacturing, value, value adding and waste are conceived and operationally used by Lean trainers in operational work processes. A comparative case study with a mixed method approach, using an explanatory sequential design, was conducted. This means that a set of quantitative data were collected, which was followed by the collection of qualitative data with the purpose of explaining and understanding the quantitative measures. An interpretivist approach is used as a framework, which implies a perspective on contemporary operations management paradigms, such as lean manufacturing, as a continuous construction of inter-subjective experiences. What becomes evident in the empirical findings is that there are both similarities and differences in the Lean trainers conceptions and use of value adding and waste. The similarities and differences can be explained by variations in two dimensions: (a) the character of the work process, which ranges between mechanical and craftsmanship, and (b) Lean trainers approach to key concepts, which ranges between being rule-based and reflective. By using a research design where the concepts of value adding and waste were used simultaneously, and adopting an interpretivist approach on lean manufacturing, we were able to reveal conditions that in other cases remain hidden.     

Robust design of composites manufacturing processes with process simulation and optimisation methods

Due to the increasing variations in raw materials and manufacturing processes, composite manufacturing processes have more part-to-part variations compared with the metal manufacturing processes. To improve part quality consistency, tooling design optimisation is an imperative step for addressing the stochastic behaviour of composite manufacturing processes. This paper presents an optimisation approach for the typical composite manufacturing technique of resin transfer moulding (RTM), which minimises the sensitivity of the mould design to uncertain material properties by choosing appropriate locations of injection gates and vents. This paper proposes a stochastic simulation based approach for the RTM processes. Normal distribution and Weibull distribution were utilised as the statistical models for representing the permeability values for the main region and race-tracking, respectively. Based on the statistical properties of the permeability, a graph-based two-phase heuristic (GTPH) was adopted to minimise the flow dispersion value (a quantitative measure for part quality consistency) such that the process design is not sensitive to the material and process parameter variations.     

Productivity measurement of the manufacturing process for outsourcing decisions: the case of a Taiwanese printed circuit board manufacturer

Outsourcing is used to alleviate capacity shortages and increase production flexibility. Generally, the outsourcing decision of manufacturing processes is determined by the capacity utilization rate and focus on individual process. In this article, multicriteria are considered by applying the data envelopment analysis to evaluate the relative efficiencies of all the manufacturing processes to help to assess the allocation of a company's resources. The Malmquist productivity index (MPI) is further employed to measure the productivity changes of each process, on which the outsourcing decision can be based. The empirical case of a Taiwanese printed circuit board manufacturer is applied to illustrate the outsourcing decision process. According to the outsourcing decision matrix proposed in this article, the manufacturing process with low efficiency score and MPI value was identified as a high priority for outsourcing. The outcome shows that the manufacturing process with a higher investment of fixed assets does not guarantee better efficiency. If a company follows the outsourcing decision suggested by the proposed approach, the capacity utility rate and the production quantity per person can be increased. The results and analysis model can provide an alternative for managerial thinking and practical application for outsourcing decisions.     

Production, operating risk and market uncertainty: a valuation perspective on controlled policies

This paper develops a contingent claims model of an optimally controlled production process characterized by financial and operational risks. Financial risk is depicted by the uncertainty in output prices as determined in competitive markets. Operational uncertainty is portrayed through the risk of system failures which we represent by a nonhomogeneous Poisson process. In the analysis, failure propensity is functionally specified by the system's age, rate of production, and system maintenance expenditures. In this environment, the model obtains an optimal production and maintenance policy maximizing the value of the production effort. Determination of the optimal policies results through the application of stochastic control techniques where production and maintenance expenditure rates are taken as adapted real-valued processes. Further extensions of the model include the analysis of an insurance option on failure repairs and the consequent moral hazard implications. We demonstrate that an appropriately established insurance premium must reflect the producer's operating policy in place and the extent to which operating policies may be modified to maintain the same level of operating risk, as in the absence of an insurance option. The framework presented provides insight into key strategic factors that affect the management of process operations, operating flexibility issues and their resulting economic value.     

Decision-making on multi-mould maintenance in production scheduling

The reliability of a critical tool like a mould on a machine affects the productivity seriously in many manufacturing firms. In fact, its breakdown frequency is even higher than machines. The decision-making on when mould maintenance should be started become a challenging issue. In the previous study, the mould maintenance plans were integrated with the traditional production schedules in a plastics production system. It was proven that considering machine and mould maintenance in production scheduling could improve the overall reliability and productivity of the production system. However, the previous model assumed that each job contained single operation. It is not workable in other manufacturing systems such as die stamping which may contain multiple operations with multiple moulds in each job. Thus, this study models a new problem for multi-mould production-maintenance scheduling. A genetic algorithm approach is applied to minimise the makespan of all jobs in 10 hypothetical problem sets. A joint scheduling (JS) approach is proposed to decide the start times of maintenance activities during scheduling. The numerical result shows that the JS approach has a good performance in the new problem and it is sensitive to the characteristic of the setup time defined.     

Incorporating production concerns in conceptual product design

This paper presents a set of analytical tools that can be used to alter a product's design, manufacturing processes and assembly techniques to increase production rate. The analytical tools obtain these improvements by simultaneously considering each part's geometric attributes and complexity, vendor selection, material and process selection, and capacity planning at the conceptual stage of the product realization process. The method detects and then avoids heavily used resources by indicating which combination of one or more of its components' geometric attributes, manufacturing processes, material and assembly methods should be altered. The method is illustrated with the analysis of an overhead projector. It is shown that production rate can be doubled by either making small changes to a component's geometric attributes or by selecting different manufacturing processes. Neither of these changes affects the functionality of the product.     

Constraint-based design using an operational approach

Constraint-based design, which explicitly represents and operates upon constraints, has been recognized as a promising tool for achieving intelligent support of design, particularly the design of mechanical parts or assemblies. It is essential for a constraint-based system to realize the constraint-solving capability. This paper presents an operational approach to constraint solving using incremental feature operations. The approach is based on an operational interpretation of constraints, i.e. the constraint satisfaction is carried out in terms of operations incrementally. A grammatic formalism is used for operational modeling of constraints. Each graph production within a graph grammar corresponds to an operation or a sequence of operations designated for constraint satisfaction that is related to a rule or a procedure. Therefore, a constraint satisfaction process can be represented by a graph grammar parsing process. The operation sequence is planned by graph grammar parsing and invocation of the related rules or procedures. Constraints are then evaluated by invoking the sequenced operations. Features are introduced as higher-level abstractions into the geometric constraints network. This enables reasoning about design validation from topological and manufacturing views.     

On the Sensitivity of Mechanical Properties of Woven-Fabrics to the Draping Process: Static and Dynamic Assessment Through a CAE-Based Approach

Manufacturing processes are often considered the final stage of the design. As a matter of fact, it is during the manufacturing that material properties are ultimately determined. This is especially true for composite materials, whose manufacturing processes are often lowly automated and thus subject to the low repeatability of manual operations. Manufacturing simulations tools are becoming available to support the definition of the manufacturing process and assess the manufacturability of composite parts. The present paper proposes a reversed approach to the laminate design process which starts from the manufacturing simulation in order to quantify the impact of the process on the mechanical properties of the as-produced part. An automotive component is chosen and different woven-fabrics structures are considered to determine their sensitivity to the shearing phenomenon. Homogenization of material properties is performed on a local basis, depending on the local geometry modifications undergone by the reinforcement. Stiffness is then predicted through both static and dynamic analysis. In order to prove the effectiveness of the approach, the obtained results are compared to classic laminate modelling.     

Integrated product development

Manufacturing and design are very closely related. The manufacturing capabilities available impact the scope of design, while design for manufacturing ensures the economic success of the products. Furthermore, the major goals of firms in the nineties are to significantly reduce product costs and time to market (TTM). To meet these goals, quality product designs that meet customers’ needs have to be developed. Design methods such as Quality Function Deployment and Pugh’s concept selection technique have been used to significantly improve engineering design processes. Developed as separate tools, however, they are difficult to integrate and coordinate in the total design process, since the relationship of the two methods is often unclear. This paper demonstrates, through a case study, that these methods are in fact results of a similar underlying concept. Design problems and solutions are unified by the concept of engineering models. An engineering model is a set of equations that relates the design variables to the performance metrics used to quantify performance of a product. Together with the engineering models, Quality Function Deployment and Pugh’s concept selection technique have been used in the design and development of a hematology machine from concept to prototype.     

Sequential tolerance control in discrete parts manufacturing

The machining of complex parts typically involves a logical and chronological sequence of n operations on m machine tools. Because manufacturing datums cannot always match design datums, some of the design specifications imposed on the part are usually satisfied by distinct subsets of the n operations prescribed in the process plan. Conventional tolerance control specifies a fixed set point for each operation and permissible variation about this set point to insure compliance with the specifications. This approach is inadequate for complex, low volume, highvalue added parts such as those found in the aircraft, nuclear, or precision instrument manufacturing industry. This paper introduces the concept of Sequential Tolerance Control, an approach that uses real-time measurement information at the completion of stage j to exploit available space inside a dynamic feasible zone and reposition the set point for operations j + 1 to n. The procedure is repeated at appropriate locations along the n operations so as to optimize the production of an acceptable part.     

Investigating the value of integrated operations planning: A case-based approach from automotive industry

During the last decade, many researchers have focused on joint consideration of various operations planning aspects like production scheduling, maintenance scheduling, inventory control, etc. Such joint considerations are becoming increasingly important from the point of view of current advancement in intelligent manufacturing, also known as Industry 4.0. Under the concept of Industry 4.0, advanced data analytics aim to remove human intervention in decision-making. Thus, the managerial level coordination of decisions taken independently by various departments will be out of trend. Therefore, developing an approach that optimises various operations planning decisions simultaneously is essential. Available literature on such joint considerations is more of the exploratory in nature and is limited to simplistic production environments. This necessitates the investigations of value of integrated operations planning for wide range of manufacturing scenarios. Present paper adopts a case-oriented approach to investigate the value of integrated operations planning. First, an integrated approach for simultaneously determining job sequencing, batch-sizing, inventory levels and preventive maintenance schedule is developed. The approach is tested in a complex production environment of an automotive plant and substantial economic improvement was realised. Second, a comprehensive evaluation is performed to study the robustness and implications of proposed approach for various production scenarios. Results of such pervasive performance investigations confirm the value of proposed approach over conventional approaches.     

Optimal design for additive manufacturing of heterogeneous objects using ultrasonic consolidation

Rapid prototyping (RP) technologies, such as Laser Engineering Net Shaping (LENS®) and Ultrasonic Consolidation (UC), can be used to fabricate heterogeneous objects composed of more than one material, wherein spatially varied microscopic structural details produce continuously or discretely changing mechanical or thermal properties on a macroscopic scale. These objects are engineered to achieve a potentially enhanced functional performance. Past research on the design of such objects has focused on representation, modeling, and desired functional performance. However, the inherent constraints in RP processes, such as system capability, size and shape of raw materials, and processing time, lead to fabricated objects that may not meet the designer's original intent. To overcome this situation, the research presented in this paper focuses on developing an approach— Design for Additive Manufacturing (DfAM)—to implement identified manufacturing constraints into the design process. Previous work has applied DfAM to the design of heterogeneous objects fabricated using the LENS® process. Two manufacturing constraints for this process, namely the achievable volume fractions and the processing time, were identified and incorporated into the DfAM. In this paper, the DfAM approach is extended to the design and manufacture of heterogeneous objects for the UC process. Constraints on the possible volume fraction values and on the gradient material direction are two identified manufacturing limitations, which are incorporated into the design process. An element-based finite element (FE) representation is extended to model layered heterogeneous objects. Each element is composed of metal foils of different materials according to specific design parameters. An evolutionary-based optimizer is used for its ability to handle the type of multi-modal problems encountered in the design of heterogeneous objects. The multi-criteria design problem, consisting of finding the optimal material composition along the build direction, that satisfies the functions of minimum weight and structural deformation, is implemented and solved. A three-dimensional I-beam made of two materials—aluminum for lightweight and steel for better strength characteristics—is used to illustrate the DfAM approach and its implementation for the design of heterogeneous objects using the UC process.