Effect of applying independence axiom of Axiomatic Design theory on performance of an Integrated Manufacturing Information System: a computer simulation modeling approach

To control manufacturing processes, integration of flows of manufacturing information is an important starting point. In this regard, an effective Integrated Manufacturing Information System (IMIS) which is capable of monitoring, analyzing, and inspecting manufacturing processes properly is critical. Often, most of difficulties in achieving an effective IMIS stem from a poor design for the system architecture. This study particularly addresses the problem of coupling in architecture of an IMIS and its effect on the system performance. This study employs “Independence Axiom” of the Axiomatic Design (AD) theory to deal with the problem and uses “times in process” and “utilized capacities of available resources” as two important criteria for evaluating the system performance. To verify the proposed methodology, a real IMIS is addressed, its stochastic behavior is simulated in Visual SLAM and AweSim (version 3.o) software environment, and the outcomes are analyzed by using logistic regression method for each level of system decomposition. Results of the analyses indicate that fulfillment of independence axiom of AD theory can significantly enhance performance of the concerned IMIS.

Generic Design Methodology for Smart Manufacturing Systems from a Practical Perspective, Part I—Digital Triad Concept and Its Application as a System Reference Model

Rapidly developed information technologies (IT) have continuously empowered manufacturing systems and accelerated the evolution of manufacturing system paradigms, and smart manufacturing (SM) has become one of the most promising paradigms. The study of SM has attracted a great deal of attention for researchers in academia and practitioners in industry. However, an obvious fact is that people with different backgrounds have different expectations for SM, and this has led to high diversity, ambiguity, and inconsistency in terms of definitions, reference models, performance matrices, and system design methodologies. It has been found that the state of the art SM research is limited in two aspects: (1) the highly diversified understandings of SM may lead to overlapped, missed, and non-systematic research efforts in advancing the theory and methodologies in the field of SM; (2) few works have been found that focus on the development of generic design methodologies for smart manufacturing systems from the practice perspective. The novelty of this paper consists of two main aspects which are reported in two parts respectively. In the first part, a simplified definition of SM is proposed to unify the existing diversified expectations, and a newly developed concept named digital triad (DT-II) is adopted to define a reference model for SM. The common features of smart manufacturing systems in various applications are identified as functional requirements (FRs) in systems design. To model a system that is capable of reconfiguring itself to adapt to changes, the concept of IoDTT is proposed as a reference model for smart manufacturing systems. In the second part, these two concepts are used to formulate a system design problem, and a generic methodology, based on axiomatic design theory (ADT), is proposed for the design of smart manufacturing systems.

Generic Design Methodology for Smart Manufacturing Systems from a Practical Perspective. Part II—Systematic Designs of Smart Manufacturing Systems

In a traditional system paradigm, an enterprise reference model provides the guide for practitioners to select manufacturing elements, configure elements into a manufacturing system, and model system options for evaluation and comparison of system solutions against given performance metrics. However, a smart manufacturing system aims to reconfigure different systems in achieving high-level smartness in its system lifecycle; moreover, each smart system is customized in terms of the constraints of manufacturing resources and the prioritized performance metrics to achieve system smartness. Few works were found on the development of systematic methodologies for the design of smart manufacturing systems. The novel contributions of the presented work are at two aspects: (1) unified definitions of digital functional elements and manufacturing systems have been proposed; they are generalized to have all digitized characteristics and they are customizable to any manufacturing system with specified manufacturing resources and goals of smartness and (2) a systematic design methodology has been proposed; it can serve as the guide for designs of smart manufacturing systems in specified applications. The presented work consists of two separated parts. In the first part of paper, a simplified definition of smart manufacturing (SM) is proposed to unify the diversified expectations and a newly developed concept digital triad (DT-II) is adopted to define a generic reference model to represent essential features of smart manufacturing systems. In the second part of the paper, the axiomatic design theory (ADT) is adopted and expanded as the generic design methodology for design, analysis, and assessment of smart manufacturing systems. Three case studies are reviewed to illustrate the applications of the proposed methodology, and the future research directions towards smart manufacturing are discussed as a summary in the second part.

Estimation of porosity of rocks based upon axiomatic local linear model tree (a lolimot model) approach

Shear and Compressional Wave Velocities along with other Petrophysical Logs, are considered as upmost important data for Hydrocarbon reservoirs characterization. In this study, porosity of the extracted rocks form concerned wells is interest as it can indicate the oil capacity of the wells of interest. In this study, we employ the principles of Axiomatic Design theory, specially the first (independence) axiom, to more simplify the measurement system. Also, to clarify the strength of Axiomatic Design theory in reducing the complexity of the system and optimizing the measurement system, we utilize the The Lolimot model (LOcal LInear MOdel Tree) as a model from the neural network family and apply it before and after implementing the basic logic of Axiomatic Design (AD) theory. In addition, in order to illustrate strength of the proposed method emphasizing the effectiveness of a method which benefit from both AD theory and Lolimot model together, the existing system used to measure the rock porosity is addressed and actual data related to one of wells located in southern Iran is utilized. The results of the study show that integrating the Axiomatic Design principles with the LOLIMOT method leads to the least complex and most accurate results.

Development Cycle Modeling: Process Risk

The first part of this paper outlined the Statistical Agent-based Model of Development and Evaluation (SAbMDE) and demonstrated the model’s ability to estimate development cycle resource utilization. This second part of the paper explores the model’s ability to compute development cycle information content and process risk. Risk managers focus mostly on outcome risk, i.e., the likelihood that a running system will behave in an undesirable manner. SAbMDE assumes that a subset of outcome risks are not inherent and immutable but are, instead, the result of defects and vulnerabilities introduced during the system’s development process. The likelihood of defect and vulnerability introduction is a process risk. SAbMDE further assumes that measuring process risk is a prerequisite for minimizing defects and vulnerabilities and, therefore, outcome risk. The model implements the measurement with Shannon’s information–probability relationship similar to its use in Axiomatic Design Theory (ADT). This paper details the SAbMDE’s information and risk calculations and demonstrates those calculations with examples. The process risk calculation is consistent with and offers a mechanism for the ADT Information Axiom.

Development and Characterization of a Thermoforming Apparatus Using Axiomatic Design Theory and Taguchi Method

In this study, an experimental investigation of the development of a thermoforming apparatus and the thickness uniformity of its samples was performed based on the axiomatic design theory in conjunction with the Taguchi method. Thermoforming is a powerful tool for both consumer product needs and packaging industry. Such traditional technology has been investigated in many aspects for a long time ago. However, there are still needs for the development and characterization of thermoforming devices aiming at shorter construction time and less cost involved. Therefore, an experimental analysis was performed to systematically realize all the functional structures of the device using axiomatic design theory. The combination of orthogonal array (OA) and analysis of variance revealed the influences of the relatival processing factors, showing that the thickness of the plastic sheet and areal draw ratio had crucial roles to play. Furthermore, an optimization process using the Taguchi method was utilized to determine all accurate and optimum processing parameters. The outcomes obviously verified that the present combination method can overcome the current development and optimization method’s limitation and also conclusively give accurate optimal outcomes without using complicated algorithms and software solutions. Therefore, it promises a simple and powerful tool for engineers on-site in medium or small scale manufactories.

A computer-aided approach improving the Axiomatic Design theory with the distributed design resource environment

In the traditional Axiomatic Design (AD) theory, the mapping from the functional domain to the physical domain is based on the designers’ own knowledge and experience, and there is no systematical approach including the design resources provided outside the designers themselves’ access. Thus, the raw materials for the design process are largely limited, which means they can hardly support the designers’ increasingly creative and innovative conceptions. To help AD theory better support the design process, this paper proposes a computer-aided approach for the mapping from the functional domain to the physical domain within a distributed design resource environment, which consists of numerous design resources offered on the Internet by the providers widely distributed in different locations, institutes, and disciplines. To prove the feasibility of this proposed approach, a software prototype is established, and a natural leisure hotel is designed as an implementation case.

Green Product Module Partition Method Based on Improved Multi-objective Artificial Bee Colony Algorithm

Modular design is an important design method in the mass customization for manufacturing industry. The purpose of this paper is to meet diverse market demands while reducing the impact of products on the ecological environment. Firstly, aiming at the product life cycle process, this paper summarizes the problems encountered in each stage of the product, and introduces five green product module partition principles. Then, through the component correlation matrix, the resource greenness objective function based on the whole life cycle and the polymerization degree objective function based on the component correlation matrix are established respectively by the axiomatic design theory which makes the product mapping from functional domain to structural domain. Next, an improved artificial bee colony algorithm is proposed. Based on the artificial bee colony algorithm, the algorithm applies congestion strategy and fast nondominated sorting strategy to solve the module partition problem of product platform with multi-objective optimization, and a uniformly distributed pare to solution set is generated. Through above steps, the optimization results of module partition are obtained. Finally, an application example of aircraft tail horizontal stabilizer parts is given, and the advantages of the algorithm are proved by comparing with other algorithms.

Incorporating Patent Analysis in Axiomatic Design for New Product Development

Axiomatic design theory is widely used in new product development by providing design solutions through mapping between functional requirements and design parameters. However, the theory does not provide a method to help designer obtain and select design parameters. To this end, this paper introduces patent analysis to overcome the deficiency. Firstly, functional requirements are transformed into patent search terms, and design parameters are obtained from patents. Secondly, morphological matrix is used to represent the relationships between target function and multiple design parameters. Thirdly, design parameters with higher patent frequency are chose and combined into a new scheme. Finally, the scheme is evaluated by the independent axiom of Axiomatic Design theory. The methodology is demonstrated and validated with a case study of spa shower.