Factory Planning

Today there is a big challenge for producing companies to improve their energy efficiency. Generally, a lot of separate measures are performed to optimize energy efficiency of objects in a factory. Because of a missing holistic consideration of interdependencies between the objects in a factory, a huge potential to save energy is completely ignored. To encounter this obvious weak point, the developed method, which is descripted in this article, enables to valuate and design energy efficient factories considering the interdependencies. The factory is observed on two different levels of detail. The method is focused on small and medium-sized factories.

In the research project LUPO a hybrid simulation laboratory is build up. This combines the advantages of the computer simulation with those of a model factory. For the systematic recording, mapping and analysis of various production processes a procedure model has been created that responds to the special requirements (quick, flexible, effortless determination of informative results) of the project. A library of production objects facilitates the reutilisa tion of existing machines and hereby a reduction of simulation effort.

Companies are constantly exposed to radical change. One approach to addressing these challenges is changeable production systems. Changeable production systems can only be as adaptable as the human being who is working in them. An integrated view of the dimensions of human beings, technology and organization is essential in this context. The Institute of Industrial Management and Factory Systems has wide experience and competences in the field of research of adaptable production. This is supported by the lab area of the IBF, called IBF-Lab, which allows interdisciplinary research. Practical application is demonstrated using an example of a research project.

Due to a difficult market situation represented by the world economic and related market crisis and a steady growth of model-variety the automotive industry is facing major challenges: short innovation cycles, increased complexity of production and cost pressures. To respond to these challenges advanced approaches for long-term planning of production systems have to be implemented. This paper presents approaches of plant design utilizing digital factory and shows applications of operations research (OR) for the planning of production systems. The application of OR methods holds significant potential not only for the network planning level but also for supporting strategic decisions on the production system level.

Due to shorter product life cycle and increasing variants of products manufacturing companies have to be flexible in factory structures. Flexibility of factory structures is based on defined factory planning processes considering product, process and resource data resulting from various disciplines and isolated IT tools. Thus factory planning processes can be characterized as iterative, interdisciplinary and participative pro-cesses. To enforce the interdisciplinary and participative character, a federative factory data management (FFDM) as an integrative solution will be described. Product, process and resource data will be provided by web services resulting in acceleration of factory planning pro-cesses due to reduced redundancy, inhomogeneity and inconsistence in data holding.

In a world of steady change, manufacturing companies face major challenges. They have to react quickly to an increasing competition and more and more individual customer requests. New technologies and organisational structures like RFID or decentralised and real-time based production control can deal with this issue successfully. The specific realization of selection and analysis of each production process of the company often approves to be difficult and cost intensive. Previous simulation approaches are frequently combined with high efforts in order to state credible propositions regarding suitability and economic efficiency. The present paper shows a new opportunity towards managing these disadvantages. Additionally, the advantages are combined with computer-based simulations of the model factory. A fast and flexible illustration of the analysed production processes is achieved.

IT tools currently available in the context of digital factory allow to develop and to analyze factory concepts on different levels of abstraction. One challenge is the complexity of factory planning processes. These factory planning processes can be described with an interdisciplinary, participative and iterative character. To handle these complex processes modern methods of concurrent and simultaneous engineering get more important. These methods require new challenges from IT resulting in isolated IT-tools of a digital factory. Integration of these isolated IT-tools is the common challenge and requires an integrative solution. In this paper the result of a study conducted by the Department of Computer Integrated Design (DiK) will be presented. The two main questions of the study are: The usage of tools of digital factory in the industry and the need for a factory data management as an integrative solution in industrial practice.

Due to increased customer requirements the product quality has become a precondition for the competitiveness of manufacturers. Fundamental for the production of top-quality products are stable and error-free processes. The basic process configuration takes place during the factory planning. If substantial quality related standards are not taken into account at this time, essential modifications could only be realized during the subsequent factory operations with a significant additional effort. Therefore a methodical approach for the planning of quality supportive factories which early integrates the relevant requests in the planning processes is developed at the Institute of Production Systems and Logistics (IFA) of the Leibniz University of Hannover.

Today’s new products and services must be marketed in cycles which are rapidly becoming shorter and shorter. The pricing pressure and the progressing trend toward individualisation of products pose a tremendous challenge for major sectors of the industry. In the future, therefore, the implementation of digital methods will be necessary to a much greater extent than in the past, not only in product development, but also in process, production, and factory planning. For ensuring their own survival in a globalised world, small and medium-sized enterprises will also be faced with the inescapable necessity of introducing the digital factory. In this context, 3D-CAD factory planning can be regarded as a basic prerequisite for successful implementation of the digital factory. However, this prerequisite has not yet been satisfied in many companies. In the present publication, an overall method for implementing computer-aided 3D-CAD factory planning in conformance with the requirements is ...

These days, competitive advantages for manufacturing companies can not be achieved by a detached configuration of specific processes but only within an inte-grative configuration of the complete system factory. The deployed technologies and the manufactured products have a significant influence on the configuration of a factory. To allow a better coordination between technology, product and factory planning, an approach for integrated factory coordination has been developed at the Hannover Centre for Production Techno-logy (PZH). This approach is based on the general roadmapping idea and allows the systematisation of the information transfer concerning content and time between factory, technology and product planning.