A novel paradigm for managing the product development process utilising blockchain technology principles

The product conceptualisation, design and manufacturing phases are becoming increasingly complex, since more available resources, stakeholders and sophisticated technologies are involved during product development. The exchange and management of product-related information is often a challenging task, affecting significantly the intellectual property protection process as well as the distinction of roles among stakeholders. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that utilises blockchain technology principles for managing product development information and processes with the goal of providing new approaches to extending the functionality of product data management systems. A test case focusing on products developed with additive manufacturing technologies is presented.     

Adaptable Design

Increasing competition for better product functionality, quality, features, customization, environmental friendliness, lower cost and shorter delivery time presents unprecedented challenges for product manufacturing enterprises. These challenges cannot be completely addressed by advanced manufacturing technologies alone as some of which are originated from product design. Advanced design technologies and tools for early product design processes are critically needed where most important decisions are made with respect to the product functionality, quality, manufacturability, cost and environmental performance. This paper discusses adaptable design (AD) as a design paradigm for both business success and environmental protection. Adaptable design aims at developing products that are adaptable in their design and/or their production. Adaptability is defined as the extension of the utility (service) of products. Two types of adaptabilities are proposed as product adaptability and design adaptability. Two types of design adaptations are also identified, which include foreseeable specific adaptations and unforeseeable general adaptations. The former can be described by specific adaptability and the latter by general adaptability. Three key elements of AD are presented including functions independence, a measure of adaptability and a function based design process model of the AD. Based on these concepts and design objectives, adaptable design methods and general design guidelines are proposed. Examples are included to illustrate the concepts, design methods and guidelines.     

A production planning system to continuously integrate the characteristics of reconfigurable manufacturing systems

Operation in a dynamic environment requires companies to constantly adapt their manufacturing systems to stay competitive. One approach to manufacturing is the use of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS). Current production planning approaches cannot model and realize the production-side adaptions available in RMS. In this article a novel planning system for modeling that continuously integrates the key characteristics of RMS in production planning and control (PPC) is presented. First, the challenges for production planning using RMS are defined. A feasible planning system is then presented, based on modeling and specification approaches, followed by a planning method to realize capacity scalability and functionality changes in planning processes. Finally, a prototypical application is outlined and the planning system is evaluated with the help of different production scenarios. The application results demonstrate the feasibility of the planning system as well as the potential improvement of typical key performance indicators in manufacturing.     

A Design Method for Product Family under Manufacturing Resource Constraints

Product variety is required for satisfying customer needs, and at the same time, efficient usage of manufacturing resources is mandatory for competitive and environmentally conscious manufacturing. For coping with these requirements, product family concept is effective, which enables variety of products based on well designed similar product property with associated manufacturing processes. In this study, a modeling framework for relationship between product functionality and manufacturing resources is discussed. Based on this framework, a design method is investigated for product family structure which realizes required product functional variety with efficient utilization of manufacturing resources. Application examples are discussed for automotive components.     

Co-Evolution of Product Families and Assembly Systems

To cope with the intense global competition that is characterized by high product variety and short life cycles, manufacturers need to share manufacturing systems across products and product generations. Co-evolution of product families and assembly systems is proposed as a novel methodology for the joint design and reconfiguration of product families and assembly systems over several product generations. The co-evolution methodology capitalizes on the opportunities for design and assembly system reuse that are offered by modular product architectures and reconfigurable assembly systems. As a result, co-evolution can lead to reduced product development costs and increased responsiveness to market changes.     

Integration of manufacturing-induced properties in product design

Guidelines of the design for manufacturability (DfM) hardly regard neither specific positive effects nor additional functional convenience achievable by specific manufacturing technologies. Consequently, opportunities for design quality improvements are wasted. The paper introduces a new approach in terms of connecting methods of product design, mathematical optimization, process planning and forming technologies, which inherently change material properties of the workpiece. By providing manufacturing-induced properties at an early stage of product design additional functionality can be generated and product complexity reduced. Due to the algorithmic approach design solutions based on different manufacturing technologies can be efficiently compared in mature development stages.     

Production quality performance of manufacturing systems with in-line product traceability and rework

In-line product inspection and identification are emerging technologies supporting the observability and traceability of the product state evolution in multi-stage manufacturing systems. These technologies enable the dynamic implementation of defect management actions, such as product rework. However, their impact on the system quality and production logistics performance needs to be assessed in order to justify the related investments. This paper presents a theory and a methodology to predict the effective throughput of manufacturing systems with product traceability and rework, jointly considering the product and system state dynamics. The industrial benefits are validated in a real system in the semiconductor industry.     

Increased Reliability of Gas Turbine Components by Robust Coatings Manufacturing

The expanding operational windows of the advanced gas turbine components demand increasing performance capability from protective coating systems. This demand has led to the development of novel multi-functional, multi-materials coating system architectures over the last years. In addition, the increasing dependency of components exposed to extreme environment on protective coatings results in more severe penalties, in case of a coating system failure. This emphasizes that reliability and consistency of protective coating systems are equally important to their superior performance. By means of examples, this paper describes the effects of scatter in the material properties resulting from manufacturing variations on coating life predictions. A strong foundation in process-property-performance correlations as well as regular monitoring and control of the coating process is essential for robust and well-controlled coating process. Proprietary and/or commercially available diagnostic tools can help in achieving these goals, but their usage in industrial setting is still limited. Various key contributors to process variability are briefly discussed along with the limitations of existing process and product control methods. Other aspects that are important for product reliability and consistency in serial manufacturing as well as advanced testing methodologies to simplify and enhance product inspection and improve objectivity are briefly described.     

Emergent Synthesis Approaches to Control and Planning in Make to Order Manufacturing Environments

The main goal of manufacturing systems with make to order environments is to provide products for unique requirements of customers. The demand for products can vary not only in product variety but in optimum criteria. Whilst a manufacturing system might be capable of producing the required product, there can appear difficulties for the system to fulfill the cost and time related constraints of the consumer. This paper introduces emergent synthesis approaches to manufacturing control and production planning in make to order environments to evaluate and control the range of time and cost constraints that the system is able to complete.     

Evaluating the substitution risk of production systems in volatile environments

Today’s manufacturing companies are confronted with key challenges such as an increasing individualization and shorter product life cycles. Production systems are to be made resistant to substitutions in order to secure sustainable competitive advantages in such a volatile market environment. A production system runs at risk of being substituted if an alternative production system exists, which is at least equivalent in terms of economic, ecologic, social, and technological criteria with respect to current as well as possible future product programs. The research presented in this paper provides a systematic approach to assess the substitution risk of production systems regarding a current as well as possible future product programs. It comprises a methodology, which allows for a static and dynamic evaluation of production systems based on analytical cost models, scenario creation and real options analysis. By implementing a Monte Carlo simulation, various probability distributions of system parameters can be taken into account. The presented methodology focusses on economic and ecologic aspects. Finally, the methodology is applied to a case study.     

Reusability Assessment for Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing firms have begun reconfiguring and reusing production systems to save resources consumed on system changes that were brought about by the high product variety and frequent model change. As a result, assessing manufacturing system reusability has become an important issue. This paper introduces intrinsic and effective reusability of manufacturing systems and proposes quantitative metrics to assess them. Using an automotive assembly system as example, this paper also explores how system configurations and task allocation affect reusability. Insights from such a study will help improve manufacturing system reuse for families as well as generations of products.     

Design and dynamic analysis of an arch-type desktop reconfigurable machine

This paper describes the development of a three-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) desktop reconfigurable machine tool. Recently, numerous micro-components or systems in various areas such as biomedical micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) often require dedicated, precise, and cost-efficient manufacturing processes to cope with large product demand fluctuations in the global market. A downscaled desktop manufacturing machine that can control multi-DOF motions rapidly and smoothly on the basis of a reduced machine size was developed to meeting this demand. In this paper, the conceptual design of a desktop reconfigurable machine, which is capable of controlling the three DOF orientation of a spindle, is presented. Then, static and dynamic structural analyses are performed to characterize the effect of vibration on the manufacturing performance. The results demonstrate the feasibility of simultaneously controlling the position and orientation of the machine tool during the machining operation. Dynamic simulations and experimental results using a closed-loop control with position feedback are presented to illustrate the performance and features of the system. Unlike conventional full-scale manufacturing machines, the developed machine provides a number of advantages, including fast dynamic response, simple design, low cost, and a compact but relatively large workspace without motion singularities.     

Advanced microstructures and its production through cutting and grinding

Microstructures can be used to improve the tribological performance of surfaces, to reduce flow losses or even to store information. In order to assure the functionality of these surfaces, the relationships between the microstructure designs and the manufacturing processes have to be understood. In this paper, the relevant design criteria for three advanced microstructure applications and the proposed manufacturing solutions as well as the resulting surface properties are discussed. In addition, the mechanisms during chip formation are identified and the output parameters of several machining experiments on the different workpieces are evaluated.     

Selection of an optimum sample size for flatness error estimation while using coordinate measuring machine

In the present day manufacturing environments it is becoming increasingly important to be able to deliver quality products at the right time to the market at competitive costs. The quality, cost and time to market depend not only on the design and manufacturing but also on the inspection process adopted. Design specifications rely on extensive usage of form tolerances to ensure that the functionality of surfaces and features of the product are maximized. The use of the coordinate measuring machines (CMM) has greatly improved the efficacy of form tolerance measurement and is also used as the key device in this work. The focus of this work is to deal with the method and strategies for measurement of flatness error so as to be able to predict the flatness error accurately at reduced sample sizes in batch and mass production setups. Accurate evaluation of flatness will require large sample sizes which increase the cost and time of inspection and hence a need to reduce the sample sizes without compromising on the accuracy. In the absence of robust models that can predict the errors due to manufacturing processes, an alternative technique has been devised to arrive at a reduced sample size. The procedure involves using large sample data inspected on the first component as the basis for evolving smaller sample sizes for subsequent components.Experimental verification of the developed algorithm shows that flatness error can be predicted with sufficient accuracy at small sample sizes.     

Design of a theoretical holistic system model as base of construction kits for building Plug&Produce-able modular production systems

With the aim of creating flexible and variable production systems, the concept of Plug&Produce contributes to changing markets. Increasing product diversity entails increasing mixes to be produced. Thus, flexibility in adapting production quickly to fluctuating demands in functionality and performance is required. The associated shortening of life cycles involves the requirement of variable production systems structures. To solve these tasks, holistic concepts are necessary on whose basis construction kits can be created which are necessary to built up those kinds of production systems. These concepts must all-embracing cover physical structure, processes and energy supply as well as process-, flow- and logistic-control. Since we are convinced that without a theoretical fundament this task cannot be accomplished, we present a holistic system model, based upon both, the analysis of the general system theory and the analysis of controlled systems. This research and development project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the Framework Concept “Research for Tomorrow’s Production” and managed by the Project Management Agency Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe, Production and Manufacturing Technologies Division (PTKA-PFT).     

IFHTSE Global 21: heat treatment and surface engineering in the first decades of the twenty-first century: Part 1 – Introduction to ongoing IFHTSE activity

Abstract

Engineering systems and components are the result of a complex chain of actions, starting with a design to match the functional demands: materials science and technology are intimately involved; there are often multiple stages in the manufacturing process, as well as essential quality assurance methods for the component and system. Each step in the process has significance; optimum outcomes and cost effectiveness depend heavily on their being orchestrated and managed as an integrated sequence. Depending on the circumstances, the relative importance of each step may be viewed differently, but the heat treatment and surface engineering manufacturing processes are always likely to be critical. These processes themselves represent a complex balance of materials, technology, energy and environmental factors to achieve an optimum combination of functionality, industrial feasibility and economic and social viability.     

Cyber physical systems for predictive production systems

As disruptive technologies like Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things advance at a breakneck speed, modern manufacturing is ready to embrace the systematic deployment of predictive production systems. The predictive production system is an intelligent manufacturing system where networked assets are equipped with self-awareness to predict, root cause, and reconfigure faulty events automatically. Cyber physical systems are one of the core enabling technologies within which information from all the related perspectives are analyzed and interconnected between physical factory floor and the cyber computational space. It intertwines with smart analytics to comprehend invisible issues for rapid decision making. In this paper, a systematic approach is proposed on how cyber physical systems can be applied to predictive production systems to inject resilience and interoperability so that the productivity of manufacturing can be optimized.     

Optical Metrology of Surfaces

Measurement of surface topography plays an important role in manufacturing, being used for both the control of manufacturing processes and for final product acceptance. These measurements can be performed with a variety of instruments which have different capabilities and limitations. In this paper we present a wide variety of instruments that are used for measuring surface topography using optical techniques. These range from systems that are over a century old to recently-developed instrumentation that has broad new capability. We have, insofar as possible, tried to cover all of the instruments used in the visible region; however, considering the plethora of techniques and papers discovered, some omission is certainly possible.     

Mechatronic Systems for Machine Tools

This paper reviews current developments in mechatronic systems for metal cutting and forming machine tools. The integration of mechatronic modules to the machine tool and their interaction with manufacturing processes are presented. Sample mechatronic components for precision positioning and compensation of static, dynamic and thermal errors are presented as examples. The effect of modular integration of mechatronic system on the reconfigurability and reliability of the machine tools is discussed along with intervention strategies during machine tool operation. The performance and functionality aspects are discussed through active and passive intervention methods. A special emphasis was placed on active and passive damping of vibrations through piezo, magnetic and electro-hydraulic actuators. The modular integration of mechatronic components to the machine tool structure, electronic unit and CNC software system is presented. The paper concludes with the current research challenges required to expand the application of mechatronics in machine tools and manufacturing systems.     

Assessment of Manufacturing Operational Complexity

The manufacturing system must balance human characteristics, needs, skills and capabilities within the technical and business environment, in order to be effective and successful. A Systems Analysis and Design approach was utilized to integrate manufacturing technologies with the capabilities of human workers, in order to augment the performance of both. A framework was created on which to build systems analysis tools that focus on realistic factors within the manufacturing environment, such as information quantity, diversity and content; complexity (product, process and operational); task effort, and so forth. A matrix methodology and an objective measure of complexity have been developed that assess the three levels of manufacturing complexity: product complexity, process complexity and operational complexity. The focus of this paper is the ‘operational complexity’ and it provides insight into the system performance and sensitivities when considering human characteristics.