process design

Due to high safety requirements of the aviation industry, the appraisal and documentation of all repair processes, including the final certification of the affected components play a central role. The documentation of all parts of the workflow including materials and machine process parameters as well as the obtained test results leads to inefficient processing times and high costs. To address this problem, Lufthansa Technik AG Hamburg launched the project “Installation of a plenum production” and illustrates how an extensive digitalization and automation of the underlying processes can lead to a reduction in processing time of up to 70%.

Due to the increasing energy demand in Brazil renewable energy sources become more and more important. In addition to hydropower which is already used in Brazil there is a high potential for wind energy. In particular the coastal regions in Northern Brazil have great potential for using wind turbines. Modern wind turbines show a clear tendency for larger more powerful and economic usage. But the limits of the physical feasibility are reached. A weight reduction while increasing the maintenance-free operation time is the problem to be solved by a Brazilian-German research team. The Institute of Metal Forming, RWTH Aachen develops a solution with regard to the lightweight construction of generator shafts for large wind turbines within the “Brazilian German Collaborative Research Initiative in Manufacturing Technology” (BRAGECRIM) together with the “Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre, Brazil).

The process design and management in inter-organisational co-operations, like production networks for example, is rising steadily in importance. These complex socio-technical systems require a holistic approach in terms of an abstract descriptive model. A convenient modelling paradigm is being introduced in the discussion below with the Views Concept which orients on projections. Following from the purpose, the construction and content of the individual views are explained. A deeper analysis of the Views Concept is provided with the planning of a production system.

Nowadays simulation is a technically mature tool for industrial process design. However, its potential has not been put to use adequately so far. One reason for that is the highly dynamic development of products in this field, which makes it difficult to keep track with the range of products, their possibilities and limitations as well as the state of the art in general.