Production Control

The goal of the following article is to introduce a new work sampling estimation procedure along with a usage example, as well as to contrast these with the previous procedure. The new procedure enables the gradual estimation of portions of procedure types without iteration loops. In addition, it also delivers precise estimated values and can consistently process a priori information in small random samples. Furthermore, through visualization, additional decision support about the so-called probability density functions is made available for the industrial engineer in the business.

In cooperation with seven industrial enterprises of different branches the institute of Production Systems and Logistics developed in the course of a research project an IT-System for the Logistic Controlling of Production Processes. The project was funded by the Stiftung Industrieforschung. The IT-System supports logisticians of enterprises by the logistic controlling of production processes and by associated planning and design of improvements.

Today, excellence in production planning and control (PPC) is not only critical for the success of enterprises it is rather a strategic factor of competitiveness. Particularly in job shop manufacturing lot sizing is a vitally important function of PPC, due to its influence on the necessary positioning between manufacturing efficiency on the one hand and flexibility on the other hand. The article shows by example of a project of the IFA and the proIng GbR in cooperation with an automotive components supplier, that the development of a concept for effective an efficient lot sizing requires in addition to the selection of the suitable method a logistical analysis and classification of the products.

Automation and monitoring of production environments developed much during the last years. But all companies are still facing one big problem: interfaces. Every machine, every controller and every database needs a separate interface and in many projects the major part of the time is just needed to solve problems with interfaces. The OPC-standard helps by connecting all components to one central data pipeline. With OPC XML-DA, based on the OPC-DA standards, now any system can be connected to a server matching the OPC standard regardless of application and platform - without the need to use non-standard solutions. Due to OPC XML-DA now projects can be realized in significantly shorter time and with reduced cost

Current information technologies like bar codes or transponders offer an enormous potential to logistics of producing companies. But with these technologies the provision of information on processes or components along the value-adding chain is neither possible in real-time nor consistently. Future components should be able to store information on themselves, so that additional transponders are no longer required. This opens up new possibilities for a real-time production planning and control as well as for the segmentation and planning of factories.

Group or team work has always played an important role in our industry in processes of creating or changing working systems. This form of organization is an approach to use group dynamics to involve employees further into the process of creating and improving the workflow. Taylorism is the antipode. On the basis of systematic time studies and studies in movement an optimal standardizing of the workflow is strived for. In practice it quickly becomes apparent that both approaches in their extreme form are not target-orientated. The healthy mean is the right way in which the leader appears as a coach and companion for his employees.

In its search for success factors that could ensure competitiveness, German industry has long recognized the potentials of the operational company organisation and of production logistics. Modern and intelligent production management combines these aspects and thus makes an important contribution to the economic success of an enterprise. The Bottleneck-oriented Logistics Analysis (BOLA) developed at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) of the University of Hanover is a method of logistic performance measurement, which supports production management by means of a logistic-oriented evaluation of production processes. In co-operation with a construction component manufacturer, IFA carried out a BOLA in a three-month project in order to uncover organisational and logistic potentials for improvement in the production department and to derive measures for exploiting these potentials.

Approaches for a risk oriented ramp-up management can suit the purpose of closing the methodical gap between project management and production management. To develop management strategies for a risk oriented ramp-up management central ramp-up risks for a green field plant have been identified in the first step. A risk oriented scenario model leads to a quantification of possible effects resulting from the identified risks. To reach the goal of creating a ramp-up robust production system management strategies have been derived as constitutional elements of a preventive risk management. The management strategies aim at a minimisation as well as transformation of technical and organisational risks.

Increasing competition in product costs leads worldwide to the need of process improvement - especially in small and medium-sized enterprises. Projects of production and logistics, with the aim of optimising process organisation and manufacturing control are assumed to have the knowledge of decisive system parameters and adequate possibilities in interference. Against this background the efficient use of the resource information is very important in future. Precisely because the use of RFID in production control has even more rationalisation potentials, when the process monitoring of production process must be fast, safe and efficient real time close controlled.

Management literature reports on the trend for large companies to adopt the principles of the “learning organisation” or “lifelong learning”. They found “corporate universities” for educating their own staff, which are commonly based on computer-based or web-based educational services. The virtual institute VIMIMS offers an approach that is de-signed to offer small and medium enterprises access to up-to-date knowledge on production management without their having to invest substantial sums in internal further education programmes.