Unsettled Issues on the Viability and Cost-Effectiveness of Automation in Aerospace Manufacturing

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Webb ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Technical Analysis ◽  
Cutting Edge ◽  
Complex Issue ◽  
Safety Critical ◽  
Human Skill ◽  
Aerospace Manufacturing ◽  
Comprehensive Picture

The aerospace manufacturing industry is, in many ways, one of the most sophisticated commercial manufacturing systems in existence. It uses cutting-edge materials to build highly complex, safety-critical structures and parts. However, it still relies largely upon human skill and dexterity during assembly. There are increasing efforts to introduce automation, but uptake is still relatively low. Why is this and what needs to be done? Some may point to part size or the need for accuracy. However, as with any complex issue, the problems are multifactorial. There are no right or wrong answers to the automation conundrum and indeed there are many contradictions and unsettled aspects still to be resolved. Unsettled Issues on the Viability and Cost-Effectiveness of Automation in Aerospace Manufacturing builds a comprehensive picture of industry views and attitudes backed by technical analysis to answer some of the most pressing questions facing robotic aerospace manufacturing.

scholarly journals Competitiveness of Manufacturing Industry in India: Need for Flexible Manufacturing Systems

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 3041-3047
Keyword(s):  
Cost Effectiveness ◽  
Flexible Manufacturing ◽  
Flexible Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Global Competition ◽  
Ongoing Process ◽  
Manufacturing Operations ◽  
Production Processes ◽  
Industrial Operations

The ongoing process of globalization has brought about radical changes in industry and business across the globe. Because of global competition, there is ever growing need for higher productivity as well as quality in production. So also, there is a imminent need for improving cost effectiveness in industrial operations to withstand the competitive pressures. So, every business constantly seeks innovative ways of production processes for improving their competitiveness. In this context, this study looks into the need for Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMSs) in Indian, the effectiveness of FMS in raising the productivity of manufacturing operations, FMS adoption being still in its infancy in India. FMS concept, its suitability, its applications and main trends are discussed. Suitable suggestions for effective FMS implementation in Indian industry are made.

Managing Complexity in Manufacturing Changeovers: A Sustainable Manufacturing-Oriented Approach and the Application Case Study

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Mustafa ◽  
Kai Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Lead Times ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Manufacturing Complexity ◽  
Oriented Approach

Increasing manufacturing complexity continues to be one of the most significant challenges facing the manufacturing industry today. Due to these rapid changes in manufacturing systems, one of the most important factors affecting production is recognized as the frequent production setup or changeovers, consequently affecting the overall production lead times and competitiveness of the company. Developing responsive production setup and process capability is increasingly important as product ranges and varieties in manufacturing companies are growing rapidly and, at the same time, production business models are operating more towards being customer-oriented. Furthermore, although different conventional methods have been used to manage complexity in production changeovers, sustainability and competitiveness development in a manufacturing company needs to be scientifically addressed by managing manufacturing complexity. In this paper, a sustainable manufacturing-oriented approach is presented in mind of managing manufacturing changeover complexities. A case study is carried out specifically concerning changeover complexity in a pharmaceutical company, aiming at minimizing complexities in production changeover and waste, increasing plant flexibility and productivity, and ultimately the sustainable competitiveness of the company in managing manufacturing changes.

scholarly journals Managing Manufacturing Complexity Drivers on Performance – An Initial Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-50
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Strong Correlation ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Initial Study ◽  
Efficient Production ◽  
Product Management ◽  
Nonlinear Behaviour ◽  
Manufacturing Companies ◽  
Manufacturing Performance ◽  
Manufacturing Productivity

Manufacturing systems, in pursuit of cost, time and flexibility optimisation are becoming more and more complex, exhibiting a dynamic and nonlinear behaviour. Unpredictability is a distinct characteristic of such behaviour and effects production planning significantly. Complexity continues to be a challenge in manufacturing systems, resulting in ever-inflating costs, operational issues and increased lead times to product realisation. This challenge must be met with appropriate decision-making by manufacturing companies to secure competitive advantage without compromising sustainability. Assessing complexity realises the reduction and management of complexity sources which contribute to lowering associated engineering costs and time, improves productivity and increases profitability. Therefore, this study was undertaken to investigate the priority level and current achievement of manufacturing performance in Malaysia’s manufacturing industry and the complexity drivers on manufacturing productivity performance. The results showed that Malaysia’s manufacturing industry prioritised product quality and they managed achieved a good on-time delivery performance. However, for other manufacturing performance, there was a difference where the current achievement of manufacturing performances in Malaysia’s manufacturing industry is slightly lower than the priority given to them. The strong correlation of significant value for priority status was observed between efficient production levelling (finished goods) and finish product management while the strong correlation of significant value for current achievement was minimised the number of workstation and factory transportation system. This indicates that complexity drivers have an impact towards manufacturing performance. Consequently, it is necessary to identify complexity drivers to achieve well manufacturing performance.

scholarly journals The Risk of Physical Fatigue At Different Level of Posture and Repetition During Manual Handling Task in Aerospace Manufacturing Industry

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. 5758-5761
Keyword(s):  
Musculoskeletal Disorders ◽  
Completion Time ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Task Completion ◽  
Physical Fatigue ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Aerospace Manufacturing ◽  
Rest Time ◽  
Manual Handling ◽  
Different Levels

This paper aims toinvestigatethe risk of physical fatigue at different levels of posture and repetition during manual handling task. Ten subjects with nohistoryof musculoskeletal disorders performed manual handling tasks at three levels of posture and two levels of repetition. The task completion time is recorded during the experimental task and the subjects rated their perceived discomfort level after the task completion. The results indicated that the lower posture of hand at higher repetition resulted in higher perceived discomfort level that leads to higher risk of physical fatigue. The higher repetition requires higher rest time for recovery and required lengthy completion time. The findings of this study served as a reference to the manufacturing industry in manual handling task design and planning to mitigate issues related to work-related physical fatigue at different levels of posture and repetition that could lead to the risk of work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs)

An Approach to Develop Shaper Cum Slotter Mechanism: A Reconfigurable Machine Tool

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 195-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashutosh Singh ◽  
Mohammad Asjad ◽  
Piyush Gupta ◽  
Jahangir Quamar
Keyword(s):  
Machine Tool ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Manufacturing System ◽  
Design Tool ◽  
Reconfigurable Manufacturing ◽  
Traditional Structure ◽  
Manufacturing Techniques ◽  
Solid Works ◽  
Reconfigurable Machine Tool

The traditional structure of machines (such as lathe, milling, shaper, slotter, drilling and planer) has become questionable because of the modular concepts (such as modularity, scalability, convertibility, mobility and flexibility) and reconfiguration becomes a promising approach towards modular manufacturing machines, in which manufacturing techniques are independent of changes. In this area, reconfigurable machine tool (RMT) forms a new class of modular machines in current manufacturing scenario where the manufacturing industry put a strong pressure on good quality and price reduction. The capabilities of the machines tool and manufacturing systems in reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) change with each reconfiguration (both software and hardware modules). In this case, an approach is presented for reconfiguration of horizontal shaper machine for developing the modular shaper cum slotter machine in a manufacturing system by adding some auxiliary (like Scott Russel mechanism) and some basic modules and the reconfiguration features of traditional shaper and slotter machine are also discussed. The proposed approach is illustrated with a figure, which has been designed on 3-D design tool (solid-works software platform). It is expected that, this work will help designers and practising engineers by making them aware of the reconfiguration mechanisms on traditional shaper machine, which have become a necessity for the very survival of manufacturing by lowering the operational costs.

A Bio-Inspired Framework for a Self-Healing Assembly System

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee J. Wells ◽  
Jaime A. Camelio ◽  
Giovannina Zapata
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
System Level ◽  
Self Healing ◽  
Monitoring And Control ◽  
Statistical Process ◽  
Control Approach ◽  
Process Monitoring And Control ◽  
Manufacturing Assembly ◽  
And Control

Statistical process monitoring and control has been popularized throughout the manufacturing industry as well as various other industries interested in improving product quality and reducing costs. Advances in this field have focused primarily on more efficient ways for diagnosing faults, reducing variation, developing robust design techniques, and increasing sensor capabilities. System level advances are largely dependent on the introduction of new techniques in the listed areas. A unique system level quality control approach is introduced in this paper as a means to integrate rapidly advancing computing technology and analysis methods in manufacturing systems. Inspired by biological systems, the developed framework utilizes immunological principles as a means of developing self-healing algorithms and techniques for manufacturing assembly systems. The principles and techniques attained through this bio-mimicking approach will be used for autonomous monitoring, detection, diagnosis, prognosis, and control of station and system level faults, contrary to traditional systems that largely rely on final product measurements and expert analysis to eliminate process faults.

scholarly journals Blockchain Reference System Architecture Description for the ISA95 Compliant Traditional and Smart Manufacturing Systems

Sensors ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (22) ◽  
pp. 6456 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erkan Yalcinkaya ◽  
Antonio Maffei ◽  
Mauro Onori
Keyword(s):  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Research Effort ◽  
Smart Manufacturing ◽  
Reference Architecture ◽  
Systematic Assessment ◽  
Blockchain Technology ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
Manufacturing Technologies ◽  
Smart Manufacturing Systems

The next-generation technologies enabled by the industry 4.0 revolution put immense pressure on traditional ISA95 compliant manufacturing systems to evolve into smart manufacturing systems. Unfortunately, the transformation of old to new manufacturing technologies is a slow process. Therefore, the manufacturing industry is currently in a situation that the legacy and modern manufacturing systems share the same factory environment. This heterogeneous ecosystem leads to challenges in systems scalability, interoperability, information security, and data quality domains. Our former research effort concluded that blockchain technology has promising features to address these challenges. Moreover, our systematic assessment revealed that most of the ISA95 enterprise functions are suitable for applying blockchain technology. However, no blockchain reference architecture explicitly focuses on the ISA95 compliant traditional and smart manufacturing systems available in the literature. This research aims to fill the gap by first methodically specifying the design requirements and then meticulously elaborating on how the reference architecture components fulfill the design requirements.

scholarly journals A Reactive Population Approach on the Dolphin Echolocation Algorithm for Solving Cell Manufacturing Systems

Mathematics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 1389
Author(s):  
Ricardo Soto ◽  
Broderick Crawford ◽  
Rodrigo Olivares ◽  
César Carrasco ◽  
Eduardo Rodriguez-Tello ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Swarm Intelligence ◽  
Manufacturing Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Optimization Problem ◽  
Local Optimum ◽  
Cell Manufacturing ◽  
Intelligence Algorithm ◽  
Autonomous Search ◽  
Parameter Values ◽  
Swarm Intelligence Algorithm

In this paper, we integrate the autonomous search paradigm on a swarm intelligence algorithm in order to incorporate the auto-adjust capability on parameter values during the run. We propose an independent procedure that begins to work when it detects a stagnation in a local optimum, and it can be applied to any population-based algorithms. For that, we employ the autonomous search technique which allows solvers to automatically re-configure its solving parameters for enhancing the process when poor performances are detected. This feature is dramatically crucial when swarm intelligence methods are developed and tested. Finding the best parameter values that generate the best results is known as an optimization problem itself. For that, we evaluate the behavior of the population size to autonomously be adapted and controlled during the solving time according to the requirements of the problem. The proposal is testing on the dolphin echolocation algorithm which is a recent swarm intelligence algorithm based on the dolphin feature to navigate underwater and identify prey. As an optimization problem to solve, we test a machine-part cell formation problem which is a widely used technique for improving production flexibility, efficiency, and cost reduction in the manufacturing industry decomposing a manufacturing plant in a set of clusters called cells. The goal is to design a cell layout in such a way that the need for moving parts from one cell to another is minimized. Using statistical non-parametric tests, we demonstrate that the proposed approach efficiently solves 160 well-known cell manufacturing instances outperforming the classic optimization algorithm as well as other approaches reported in the literature, while keeping excellent robustness levels.

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