Manufacturing Systems

Production Ramp-Ups are crucial for an industrial companies´ success. Business processes have to be controlled throughout the entire Production Network, what could be ensured by the use of modern workflow-based control methods. So far it is still questionable what should be the workflow’s goal. Looking at a ramp-up along the supply chain the process consists of a large number of local ramp-ups. For this a prognosis system will be introduced which allows an educated guess on the development of the number of pieces during the ramp-up. The prognosis is founded on a knowledge-based approach and does rely on multivariate data analysis. This will lead to a ramp-up forecast which could offer strategic aims into workflow-based network control tools.

The growing role of China for manufacturing and as a source of low-price-products, Chinese companies have increasingly affected this strategic setup of manufacturing companies in Europe. Exploiting this China Price Factor leading companies have reorganised their value chains in order to include china made components. Chances and risks of the distributed manufacturing, considering Chinese partnerships, are discussed. The strategic position of Chinese companies as well as the general development in china and other emerging markets allows drawing a number of conclusions and making an attempt for an outlook of what is to be expected as possible consequences of Chinas important role.

In production logistics of the machine and tool manufacturig industry RFID-systems are implemented more and more. Enterprises expect an improvement of efficiency in tracing containers and material provision. Implementation of RFID often fails because the processes should be adopted as they are and limits of the technology are not known sufficiently. This article shows the limits of RFID in tracing containers in production and introduces an approach of implementing RFID-supported processes.

Lean Production-Systems (LPS) are widespread especially among the big automobile producers. LPS are company-specific configured systems which optimally coordinate technical, personal, and organisational methods. The implementation and maintenance (of elements) of an LPS requires a certain effort, but provides also many benefits. The effort-benefit relation especially for small and medium-sized enterprises is often not known. This paper allows in this context an overview of how to make this relation transparent as to production factors and size of enterprise.

Developing and testing and operating complex machinery and repairing it under time pressure if it breaks down - individuals in many professions have to learn new skills. Moreover, they have to do so as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. Virtual technologies are supporting learning more and more frequently. Operations and procedures on machinery and plants are already taught in individual lessons on the virtual model. They can be repeated as often as desired without the space or time constraints of real machinery and without endangering either operator or plants through incorrect behaviour and can be practiced before a real machine or plant has been constructed.

The increasing demand of hybrid micro-technical systems resp. products in small to middle size lots, requires on the one hand new concepts from the micro production engineering and the production process planning and on the other hand methods for the development of micro production systems. Taking the postulation „small machines for small components“ into account, Micro Factories consist of highly specialized mini machines, each having a footprint of about 0,09 m² in comparison to 5 m² of conventional systems [1]. Micro Factories are arranged independently for each task to form a complex production system. Viewing the use of mini machines in micro production from the perspective of the production process, a concept for using adaptive, automatic quality control loops is proposed.

This article points out the basic concept of „One-Piece-Flow” in the context of facility planning in manufacturing and shows examples of its successful application in assembly. The authors present configuration variants of this concept and they show the important design parameters with their effects on the system performance. While in the 80’s the principle of flow production was used only for large scale production and mass production, there is a new understanding today: the flow principle is also usable with advantages for medium quantity production, especially for assembly operations carried out by manual and by automatic work stations as well.

Due to shortening product life cycles, complex supplier networks and an increasing number of parties involved, the decision making process has become both more critical and more difficult. The complexity and dynamics of the ramp-up phase make it necessary to not try to concentrate the decisions in on hand, but rather distribute decisions among decentralized yet competent decision makers on-site. It is, however, necessary to provide the decentralized decision makers with the basis and the capability of decision making, and a joint target system to ensure optimal outcome. The paper presents a heuristic approach to design and operate production ramp-up appropriate to stable and efficient ramp-up processes.

Changes within organisations and processes define the current processing landscapes of industrial companies. A permanent orientation to competitiveness, the aspiration to effectivity and efficiency as well as the continuous progress in technologies and systems, necessitates an overall coordination of relevant processes. Quite obviously this means today no longer to focus only on production and assembly processes. Only the exact interaction of involved areas - besides production/assembly even areas as logistics, quality and process planning - make a production economically ideal. A leading aircraft-producer realizes significant production-changes by modifying the static (dock-)manufacturing system into a trend-setting flow line-concept.

The article argues that there is the internationalization of products and capital-orientated market financialization exits a stress ratio. The quantifying logic of capital-orientated market forms of control abstracts from qualitative criteria which may destabilize the innovative ability of enterprises. Therefore a more efficient regulation of the capital market is required to stabilize international networks of production.