Structured approach to the design of a production data analysis facility Part 2: Implementation and evaluation

This paper reports research into a novel machining, inspection and analysis facility directed towards a small manufacturing enterprise. A major feature of the facility is the ability to produce rapid manufacturing control through feedback data generated from the seamless integration of machining, inspection and production data analysis activities in order to influence the regeneration of NC part programs. The major contribution of the paper explores the implementation and evaluation of a prototype production data analysis facility that consists of four constituents: machine and inspection planning, production code generation, comparative tolerance analysis, and manufacturing data analysis, the execution of which is supported by the use of order and manufacturing information models. An integrated multifunctional prototype production data analysis software tool has been developed for a limited number of manufacturing features for 2½D prismatic components. This prototype software tool has been tested and is critically reviewed with future work.     

Cell formation: the need for an integrated solution of the subproblems

Cellular manufacturing is a viable option in many manufacturing systems. There are various subproblems in the design of a cellular manufacturing system. These are machine group and part family formation, machine duplication, intracell layout and intercell layout. The only comprehensive design strategy that attempts to address all of these is production flow analysis. However, this technique is a sequential strategy where the subproblems mentioned above are assumed nested within each other and are solved in a forward pass with no feedback. This is a satisfactory approach only in cases where the part families are relatively disjoint and machine groups are formed without constraints on machine duplication to eliminate intercell flow. The presence of bottleneck machines and parts renders the problem considerably more complex, as the subproblems influence each other substantially. This paper presents an integrated framework for solving these subproblems by generating a limited set of feasible alternative solutions.     

复杂型材智能加工制造系统的设计

目的 实现新一代信息技术背景下传统铝门窗幕墙型材加工行业的转型升级,以应对复杂型材加工制造存在的成本高、工序繁多等诸多挑战。方法 根据型材加工工艺流程及该行业定制化生产的特点,提出一种涵盖网上下单、订单自动处理、机床智能加工生产的复杂型材智能加工制造系统架构,重点针对自主开发的门窗幕墙型材一站式加工智能机床,研发出一套复杂型材智能加工制造系统。结果 研究了加工信息数字化模型、工艺数据库等关键技术。通过工艺数据库的构建,实现了自动编程系统的搭建。结合Web Service与XML技术,研发出订单自助处理系统、机床智能操作管理系统及其与ERP系统的集成互连,打通了生产各环节之间的技术壁垒,形成了复杂型材一体化加工工艺。结论 实际测试表明,经复杂型材智能加工制造系统一体化制造的复杂型材从接受订单到产品加工完成只需40分钟,大幅提高了生产效率和产品质量,降低了加工成本。本研究为复杂型材智能加工及其他传统制造行业的转型升级提供了有益的借鉴和参考。     

Data analytics and optimization for smart industry

Industrial intelligence is a core technology in the upgrading of the production processes and management modes of traditional industries. Motivated by the major development strategies and needs of industrial intellectualization in China, this study presents an innovative fusion structure that encompasses the theoretical foundation and technological innovation of data analytics and optimization, as well as their application to smart industrial engineering. First, this study describes a general methodology for the fusion of data analytics and optimization. Then, it identifies some data analytics and system optimization technologies to handle key issues in smart manufacturing. Finally, it provides a four-level framework for smart industry based on the theoretical and technological research on the fusion of data analytics and optimization. The framework uses data analytics to perceive and analyze industrial production and logistics processes. It also demonstrates the intelligent capability of planning, scheduling, operation optimization, and optimal control. Data analytics and system optimization tech-nologies are employed in the four-level framework to overcome some critical issues commonly faced by manufacturing, resources and materials, energy, and logistics systems, such as high energy consumption, high costs, low energy efficiency, low resource utilization, and serious environmental pollution. The fusion of data analytics and optimization allows enterprises to enhance the prediction and control of unknown areas and discover hidden knowledge to improve decision-making efficiency. Therefore, industrial intelligence has great importance in China’s industrial upgrading and transformation into a true industrial power.     

Sculptured surface tolerance verification with design datums

Sculptured or free-form surfaces are widely used in many fields with extensive applications. Once such surfaces are manufactured, surface inspection compares the manufactured surfaces with the surface design specifications to verify conformance. Although significant research and development efforts have been devoted to the design and manufacturing of products consisting of partial or sole free-form surfaces, the inspection of these surfaces is still a difficult task. For many engineering applications, a free-form surface is assigned a profile tolerance with reference to design datums for assembly, functionality and other manufacturing requirements. The paper discusses developments of surface inspection techniques for profile tolerance of free-form surfaces. The concept of datum direction frame is proposed to find the transformation information that localizes measurement data to design model. The technique consists of two major steps: localization of measurement data to the design system, based on the datum reference information; and further localization based on the information from free-form surfaces. Testing examples were carried out to validate the developed techniques. The new method does not need corresponding points from the datums of the design model and measured surfaces. Therefore, it is simpler, yet more robust. It can also be used conveniently in manufacturing processes.     

Process alternative generation from product geometric design data

A fundamental element in operating a competitive manufacturing system is the ability to control material, cost, and other production resources required to transform the raw material to a finished product. To successfully control cost, it is essential that a reliable assessment of the tasks required to manufacture the product be made. This involves identifying the operations and the machine tools required. In this research, a method of decomposing polyhedral components to generate all possible ways to process the part is presented. The technique takes as input the geometric design data of the product, analyzes and interprets the design to identify the volume of material to be machined out from the raw material block to obtain the finished product. The volume of material to be removed are characterized to generate various approach directions from which the material can be machined out. The alternate tool approach directions are used to construct an AND/OR graph that captures the process alternatives. Using this graphical representation, a model is proposed for selecting the best process plan based on some user defined criterion. The developed procedure can be integrated into a CAD/CAM system to provide the required linkage between design and manufacturing and thus, automate a critical link in manufacturing.     

Optimisation design of attribute control charts for multi-station manufacturing system subjected to quality shifts

The qualities of products are a major concern in any production system; thus implementing efficient inspection policies is of great importance to reduce quality-related costs. This article addresses the problem of finding optimal inspection policies for the multi-station manufacturing system (MMS) subjected to quality shifts to minimise total quality-related cost. Each station of the MMS may stay at either in-control condition or out-of-control condition, which may lead to different nonconforming product rates. Markov chain method is used to calculate the steady-state probability distribution (SSPD). Based on the SSPD, the cost structure of this MMS is analysed. The economical optimisation model of attribute control charts (ACCs) is then established, in which the decision variables are the control chart parameters: sampling interval, sample size and control limit. The ACCs optimisation model is resolved by the proposed integrated algorithm combining heuristic rule and tabu search. This approach is verified through an application case taken from a mobile phone shell production company. The results of comparative analysis show that the proposed model is much more economical than both the current outgoing inspection strategy and the regular np control chart. The sensitivity analysis of four input parameters is also conducted.     

Improving manufacturing lead time using holistic approach to planning and execution with integrated data structures: numerical simulation and comparison

Manufacturing planning and control (MPC) plays a significant role in effective planning of requirements and execution of those plans. It also influences various performance measures, in particular on-time delivery, which is dependent on many factors including manufacturing lead time. This paper aims to address key issues of infinite loading of resources, lack of forward planning, and limited simultaneous planning capabilities of MRP through a holistic approach to planning of various components and execution of those plans, based on integrated data structures. It is shown that integrated data structures, combining hierarchical single-level BOMs and sequential operations routings using a holistic approach to planning and execution enable reducing lead time by eliminating slack times associated with traditional methods. Furthermore, manufacturing lead time, based on integrated data structures is a true representation of operation times and is shorter compared with traditional lead time. Sensitivity analysis on lead-time with bills-of-materials (BOM) levels and floats shows that the holistic approach to planning and execution with integrated data structures is an effective way of improving lead-time, in particular when product structures involve many levels of BOMs and floats (slack times). The proposed holistic approach provides forward planning, simultaneous planning of components, and finite loading of resources. It is expected that the concept of integrated data structures be extended to model transaction data with process functions (e.g. production order cycle), which would improve overall cycle times by eliminating manual functions associated with current methods.     

Integration of production planning,project management and logistics systems for supply chain management

The objective of this research was to develop an integrated framework to handle application modules in enterprise resource planning (ERP) and supply chain management (SCM) systems that traditionally needs to be interfaced on a case-by-case basis. This paper presents a framework integrating various modules in both systems, for planning, control and execution of materials, resources and operations. The framework enables planning and execution over a range of areas, from flow to project-based manufacturing and distribution from suppliers to customers. This document presents the conceptual framework development along with algorithms for scheduling paths, and illustrated numerical examples in the supply chain environment. The numerical evaluation of scheduling paths and planning of components, in the integrated networks, shows that the developed framework could cater for ERP/SCM application modules. The framework also facilitates simultaneous planning of many components, and eliminates the need for separate modules in ERPSCM systems. It enhances planning, control and execution, and simplifies the vendor follow-up system by integrating supplier components into the integrated network. The framework therefore becomes a new production planning (PP) module in integrated ERP/SCM systems and can provide links to other manufacturing philosophies, such as just-in-time (JIT).     

Object-oriented modelling of manufacturing information system for collaborative design

Object-oriented technology has been widely acclaimed as offering a revolution in computing that is resolving a myriad of problems inherent in developing and managing organisational information processing capabilities. Although its foundations arose in computer programming languages, object-oriented technology has implications for a wide range of business computing activities including: programming, analysis and design, information management, and information sharing. The problematic issues in the development of manufacturing software systems are related to the various characteristics of manufacturing systems, which are wide, dynamic and complex. Design for manufacturing (DFM) is the integrated practice of designing components while considering their manufacturability, and its benefits are widely acknowledged in the industry. A model has been developed using object oriented technology, after analysing the fundamental elements necessary for modelling manufacturing and process planning framework used in collaborative design and manufacturing in machine tool manufacturing. The main components of this model are: process planning model (PPM), manufacturing activity model (MAM), manufacturing resource model (MRM) and manufacturing cost and time model. We are using ontologies in conjunction with specific conceptual models, which can contribute to improve the interoperability between these models. The performance of this model is shown by means of one real world case. The developed manufacturing information based design tool integrated with an intelligence design system can be used for collaborative design and manufacturing, which will support machine tool designers’ to achieve cost effective and timely design.     

内加热固化环氧玻璃钢管制造系统

为提高环氧玻璃钢管生产的效率和质量,研制了仅用一台机床就能完成管道缠绕、固化和脱膜三道工序的集成制造系统.介绍了制造系统机床结构和工作原理,建立了缠绕运动控制和管道固化过程的数学模型.缠绕部分采用嵌入式多任务运动控制器实现主轴和小车的同步运动控制和缠绕逻辑控制.固化部分采用内加热固化工艺,由嵌入式工控机和PLC实现固化控制.利用有限元软件对管道固化过程的温度和固化度分布进行了数值模拟以优化固化工艺参数,并对该系统生产的管道进行了性能检测试验.实践应用表明采用内加热固化工艺可实现环氧玻璃钢管高效工业化制造.     

A new decision support system for performance measurement using combined fuzzy TOPSIS/DEA approach

It is apparent that there is a need for integrated criteria in the performance measurement of modern organisations when dealing with the performance measurement of manufacturing businesses. This paper addresses this issue in the context of measuring the performance of the 2nd Air Supply and Maintenance Center Command manufacturing/maintenance jobshops of Turkey by using a new framework which combines fuzzy TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) for measuring qualitative performance with DEA (data envelopment analysis) for measuring quantitative performance. This proposed approach provides a comprehensive measure of performance incorporating both quantitative and qualitative attributes, which in general reflect efficiency and effectiveness of the manufacturing jobshops respectively.     

Computer-aided design,manufacturing and inspection system integration for optical lens production

The main objectives of this research are the development of an integrated manufacturing strategy and the construction of a database management system for the design, machining and inspection of sculptured surfaces. Specifically, the optical lens for colour display tube/colour picture tube is selected as an application example to show the effectiveness and efficiency of the developed manufacturing strategy and database construction methods. In the machining strategy, the total machining time reduction method is proposed for the rough cutting operation based on the optimum tool path planning. In the finish cutting operation, a modified cutter contact variable step method is employed, and optimal tool paths are generated by selecting the proper tool radius within the given tolerance of a designed model. In the inspection strategy, the shortest measuring path is calculated to reduce the inspection time in CMM. In addition, an efficient database management system, which conducts the process from the surface design stage to the inspection result analysis stage, is constructed for the optimization of the sculptured surface manufacturing process. Finally, the required simulation and experimental works are carried out to verify the proposed strategy.     

A multi-level modelling system for the design of flexible machining installations

Modern flexible manufacturing facilities can be highly complex, consisting of the latest developments in machine tool technology, automated material handling systems and sophisticated cell controllers. The design and management of such systems requires a large number of decisions and choices with regard to production mix, assignment of fixtures and cutting tools. A large number of commercial computer modelling packages are now available in the market place. Although these allow valuable assistance in the analysis of a manufacturing facility, they usually take significant amounts of time to build models and require a large amount of training, and can be constraining in their application. This paper establishes a research prototype for a multi-level approach for the realization of a three-phase design and modelling system for flexible machining facilities. It portrays the view of an integrated fully data-driven solution underpinned by a machining cell database, and outlines three major areas of work within the structure, i.e. the 'Cell Configurator', 'Evaluator' and 'Emulator'. The approach is demonstrated and supported throughout the paper by an industrial case study of a modern three-machine flexible machining cell, illustrating the use of the underlying methodology behind the approach and typical inputs/outputs at each phase. The final part of the paper provides a discussion of the approach adopted based on user comments and in relation to commercial simulation tools available.     

Analysing semiconductor manufacturing big data for root cause detection of excursion for yield enhancement

With the shrinking feature size of integrated circuits driven by continuous technology migrations for wafer fabrication, the control of tightening critical dimensions is critical for yield enhancement, while physical failure analysis is increasingly difficult. In particular, the yield ramp up stage for implementing new technology node involves new production processes, unstable machine configurations, big data with multiple co-linearity and high dimensionality that can hardly rely on previous experience for detecting root causes. This research aims to propose a novel data-driven approach for Analysing semiconductor manufacturing big data for low yield (namely, excursions) diagnosis to detect process root causes for yield enhancement. The proposed approach has shown practical viability to efficiently detect possible root causes of excursion to reduce the trouble shooting time and improve the production yield effectively.     

中小型制造企业生产异常管理系统应用与研究（一）

本文基于AIP公司的生产实践,对中小型制造企业生产异常情况的成因、分类及影响进行了归纳、分析和探究。针对其生产中诸多因素所导致不能及时反馈和处理的异常以及生产效率和交货期等难以管控的现状,设计了一套对生产过程异常进行控制的可行性方案,构建了一个可支持车间生产异常事件信息实时采集、快速分析、趋势预判和综合查询的信息管理系统。     

中小型制造企业生产异常管理系统应用与研究（二）

本文基于AIP公司的生产实践,对中小型制造企业生产异常情况的成因、分类及影响进行了归纳、分析和探究。针对其生产中诸多因素所导致不能及时反馈和处理的异常以及生产效率和交货期等难以管控的现状,设计了一套对生产过程异常进行控制的可行性方案,构建了一种可支持车间生产异常事件信息实时采集、快速分析、趋势预判和综合查询的信息管理系统。     

New integrated model to estimate the manufacturing cost and production system performance at the conceptual design stage of helicopter blade assembly

This paper describes a new integrated model development to estimate the manufacturing cost and production system performance at the conceptual design stage. A fully automated conceptual framework for design for manufacturing (DFM) has been developed. An integrated product process design concept using activity based costing is applied in this paper. The new integrated model consists of four sub-modules: the geometric parameters generation module, processing time estimation module, activity based costing (ABC) module and production system performance module. All of the input-output data flows of developed modules are fully integrated for automated manufacturing cost analysis and production system performance. A developed integrated model is very useful for designers or integrated product development team to make a decision for evaluating the design alternatives and trade-offs between design and manufacturing phases at the conceptual design stage. A case study for a composite helicopter rotor blade is included.     

An attribute design method: a new approach to flexible welding machine design

We examine the design of flexible welding machines, particularly the process of matching a group of components with an optimum machine design. Analysis of current design methods highlighted the need for a systematic and less time consuming method for the conceptual design of these machines. Also identified was the need to establish a link between components to be manufactured, and the design of welding machines, within appropriate economic constraints. We present the Attribute Design Method, developed to achieve an optimum machine design for a given group of components. The method is applied to the design of a flexible welding unit, but its application may be extended to the design of flexible manufacturing systems.     

AN AHP FRAMEWORK FOR PRIORITIZING CUSTOMER REQUIREMENTS IN QFD: AN INDUSTRIALIZED HOUSING APPLICATION

Construction of housing in the United States is highly decentralized. There is an increasing use of manufactured components and modules constructed off-site at a manufacturing facility and assembled at die building site. However, there has been little use of modern manufacturing processes and controls. In an effort to develop energy efficient, affordable industrialized housing, a total engineering design approach is needed. This study uses a concurrent engineering approach to examine the production of an essential component in industrialized housing, a manufactured exterior structural wall panel. In particular, we apply Quality Function Deployment to fully integrate the customer's requirements. This paper focuses on the identification and prioritization of those customer requirements. We integrate the Analytic Hierarchy process with QFD to establish a framework for prioritizing customer requirements.