Autor: Bernd Scholz-Reiter

Several internal and external factors influence the performance of manufacturing systems. They increase the requirements for the logistic system’s flexibility, robustness and adaptability. Changeable manufacturing and autonomous control of logistic processes are capable to cope with the complexity and dynamic induced by these factors. Using a case study of an apparel manufacturing company, this article explains how autonomous control can be used to enable changeable manufacturing. It describes five enablers for changeability for the control system solution presented in the case study.

Dynamic production and logistics systems along supply chains have to operate smoothly with each other in order to satisfy customer demand in time. This task becomes even more challenging in the presence of perturbations affecting the systems. In order to address this challenge, information concerning capabilities and employment level should be appropriately exchanged between production and transportation systems. Nevertheless different stakeholders perform the planning and control of the individual systems, making locally bounded decisions. In this article we present a new approach for the alignment of production and transportation processes that enables an advanced handling of perturbations on the operational level. To this end we introduce a trigger that indicates when a re-planning of existing schedules becomes necessary. We also present a collaborative planning approach that allows for an advanced management of perturbations and a dynamic vehicle routing concept for the on time ...

This study deals with the problem of collaborative maritime transportation between manufactured export industries and maritime carriers as well as its relationships polices applied to the Brazilian case. The general maritime exportation mechanism is very comprehensive and complex with several variables (volumes, capacity of the ships, prices, maritime fees) and agents such as industries and carriers. To understand the patterns of transition from the system and its long-term behaviour, the System Dynamics’ approach is presented in order to start modelling the problem. This method allows improving the analysis of the global behaviour of the export network. For further implementation, some recommendations are given.

Wearable computing systems allow the support of workers in ongoing processes of automotive logistics. In a previous research project a wearable computing system, which is called easyTracing System, was developed. To this date, the easyTracing System is not technically mature because of the following reasons: First of all, the system was just tested in a laboratory. Hence, field tests are necessary, for example respective robustness. Besides, for supporting workers an efficient method for process controlling has to be developed. Both to make the technology of the easyTracing System workable and to develop an efficient method for process controlling are objects of research. This paper presents an approach for both development projects with the characteristic of a simultaneous processing.

Logistics has seen the introduction of autonomous control strategies and their abilities - as far as performance and robustness are concerned - have been proven. This article presents a procedure model, which helps to guide the design process for autonomous control strategies in logistics.

The investigation of dynamical properties considering job shop systems often employs discrete-event simulation. How-ever, to apply advanced analysis methods like Fourier and correlation analysis to the temporal evolution of important variables, time series are required, which comprise data taken in equally measured timesteps. Therefore sampling is applied. This paper investigates the definition of an optimal sampling rate, which ensures high quality data at a minimum of sampling efforts. Furthermore, errors occurring due to deviating sampling rates are investigated and summed up in qualitative error curves.

The assembly and usage of offshore wind energy plants will increase during the next years. The German government updated the Renewable Energies Act in 2009 which pushes the offshore development ahead. One German offshore wind energy park has been assembled and put into operation so far. Transport, construction and assembly underlie strong influences like weather conditions on sea as well as material availability. The presented article shows these influences and a concept in which adaptive planning and control strategies are used to keep the overall process under control.

Several logistics service providers are involved in the handling process at the seaport terminal in Bremerhaven, Germany. This process includes the arrival of the vehicles by vessel from the automotive manufacturer followed by the storage and the technical treatment ending with the transport to the automotive retailer. A cross-company approach of the complete process is necessary in order to improve the qua-lity of services and to enhance the utilization of the terminal as a holistic system. A control centre is used in order to generate information transparency. This is the basis for the development of cross-company planning and scheduling method. The simulation study was used to investigate the effectiveness of the developed method towards process and economic performance indicators of the supply chain.

This article deals with flexibility of production and distribution processes within global production networks. It introduces the concept of autonomous products, classifies different types of flexibility and develops according object models. The decision alternatives resulting from the increased flexibility are modelled as a mathematical function. Different decision methods are proposed for decision rendering and selecting between these alternatives. Exemplary applications in some scenarios are proposed.

Due to the increased product miniaturization, a number of new applications and market opportunities open up for mechanical micro-manufacturing. In the manufacturing process with part dimensions less than one millimeter and tolerances in the micrometer range occur so-called “size effects”. These prevent a simple scaling of processes known methods from the macro level and lead to an increased occurrence of quality deviations. In conclusion, the process capability according to ISO 21747 is affected and therefore the application of statistical process control (SPC) is more difficult. In this paper, the interaction between technical and logistical quality objectives in terms of logistical quality control are analyzed at the example of micro cold forming. Thereby, methods of statistical process control and fuzzy control are used.