Manufacturing Systems

Manufacturing companies of xxl pro-ducts are increasingly forced to distinguish themselves from their competitors by the production costs [1]. Commonly used manufacturing principles are designed for a customized production with high product variety. However, with regard to the production costs these manufacturing principles are insufficient. The transfer of alternative manufacturing principles to the xxl production offers a promising approach to increase the productivity.

The steadily alternating requirements for industrial companies implicate the challenge to enhance production systems. In such a turbulent as well as dynamic environment, companies must be enabled to act and react quickly. Therefore they have to be equipped with appropriate technologically and organizationally realizable as well as economically rentable options. Within this paper, a methodical approach for a systematic and individual configuration of production systems is presented in order to solve the depicted problems.

Ensuring healthy, safe and competitive work is a major challenge in industrial production particularly regarding the demographic change in Germany. Especially work systems with a high amount of manual tasks require appropriate solutions. The article discusses the potential of hybrid human-robot work systems in manufacturing focusing assembly tasks.

For a sustained improvement in the logistic goals, such as the punctuality of delivery or cycle time, a consistent, process-oriented design, planning and execution of production systems is required. Besides the development of new methods, support by appropriate IT systems is necessary. Especially for SMEs, there are no solutions in this regard. Thereby first of all the existing MRP systems remain in the old thought patterns, to control and regulate the complexity of the real world through a detailed illustration as a model. For the development of a new ppc system the customer needs were determined apart from solutions of existing systems. The article shows the “real” needs in the environment of the factory structure design and production planning and control of SMEs by using innovation management according to Design for Six Sigma+Lean (DFSS+Lean).

Direct Inkjet Printing enables computer-aided additive manufacturing of three-dimensional objects, broadening its office applications. The conventional ink in the cartridge is replaced by a suspension, containing particles of the desired material. By successive printing of cross-sections, the 3D-sample is built up layer by layer. Complex geometries and individually designed objects are printed through this tool-free technology. Direct Inkjet Printing of ceramic suspensions by a thermal printhead allows for the production of parts in a variety of application fields, like microelectronics or medicine, where complex functional components are required.

The development of novel micro parts for several applications has grown rapidly over the last years. In most cases, it is possible to manufacture micro parts by means of micro machining. However, mechanical material removal processes make use of large-scale machine tools with dimensions that exceed the small-sized parts (usually up to 10 mm) by a factor of more than 1,000. This paper shows advances in the combination of micro and ultra-precision machining processes in order to meet the strict micro parts’ requirements and a novel concept for a micro grinding module, which can be integrated into small-scaled machine tools.

Due to an increasing cost pressure especially big companies decided in recent years to implement a lean production system. However, the majority does not meet their expectations regarding the overall performance. An actual study confirms the companies´ dissatisfaction. There is a lack of structured and systematic approaches for lean production. Especially small and midsized companies ask for a systematic description for the concept in order to understand the context and to get a guideline for the implementation.

The aim of a sustainable production can only be achieved if an integrated approach is adopted. The article describes how fluid management and hygienic plant design influence sustainability and efficiency of a production processes.

Global production networks connect partners with outstanding expertise, and make use of regional cost advantages for purchasing and production operations. This development leads to an increasing structural complexity of the networks, which is accompanied by a closer collaboration of dynamic logistics processes. Hence, the resulting dynamics of a large-scale production network is characterized by the dynamics of the individual logistics processes, the dynamics of the network structure and dynamics of the external processes that affect the production network. However, in practice a lack of adequate procedures for the analysis and design of these networks can be observed. The presented article addresses this need by introducing tools and methods for the approximation of large-scale production networks, analysis of their dynamics and the robust design of the network resources.

Many companies have difficulties in generating sustainable success through the introduction of a production system, especially because of the systemic and cultural change process. During his time as head coach Klinsmann changed the DFB from old structures to a modern system and initiated a sustainable development. By comparing the Klinsmann Project with the findings of a benchmarking survey about the successful introduction of production systems conducted by the Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering of RWTH Aachen University, clear parallels can be pointed out and hence control levers for a successful change can be identified.