production systems

The growing demand for battery cells offers significant potential for the use of digital solutions in their manufacture, which in turn creates opportunities for added value through adaptive and flexible production systems. A key enabler is interoperable data exchange based on formalized data descriptions. Existing ontologies and information models remain too abstract for direct implementation. This paper presents a requirements analysis of data standards in battery cell manufacturing. A procedure for developing domain-specific standards based on OPC UA (Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture) is derived from the results.

The competitiveness of manufacturing companies producing in high-wage countries is strongly depending on labour productivity. In the course of Germany’s demographic change, companies with manual production need to compare the heterogeneous impact factors on labour productivity to develop goal-oriented measures for productivity improvements. The integral productivity analysis enables the user to identify the various impacts on labour productivity and to prioritise fields for process optimisation. The approach is based on the state-oriented modelling of worker activities.

Against the background of today’s highly competitive and dynamic market environment, the concept of changeability of producing gets increasingly important for producing companies in order to maintain or even enhance their survivability. The necessity for change in a production system is determined by the time-dependent complexity of the production tasks which change dynamically with the system’s environment. Most research in this area focuses on the approach to achieve a better changeability by the production system’s design. This paper puts another viewpoint on changeability: best way to achieve an enhanced and sustainable survivability of a production system can be achieved by an early and focused determination of the right time and amplitude of change.

Although all approaches to proactive change management of production systems emphasize the relevance of complexity, an integrated building block “management of complexity” is not available. Based on a specification of the domains and dimensions of production complexity a framework for handling complexity is outlined. It covers guidelines, principles and tools for coping with the multiplicity, diversity, ambiguity and dynamics of production systems.

Since the beginning of the 1990s the business environment of manufacturing industries has changed permanently. A majority of production systems have a lean, cost-effective and process-oriented structure. But this is still not enough for being successful in the long-term. The key factor for meeting challenges of a global market is the changeability of production systems. Instead of their recurring re-planning and rescheduling, they should be designed changeable right from the beginning of the planning phase. Time data is an important calculation and planning basis for this. In this paper we present a concept for dynamic time data management in planning and designing changeable production systems.

Changes on the product and manufacturing side resulting from intensifying global competition have put pressure on companies to alter their strategy, organization and production. Especially the ability to quickly adapt production equipment has become a crucial factor which can provide great competitive advantage. Current research work of the Institute for Manufacturing Automation and Production Systems (FAPS) at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg focuses on material-flow and production systems that are both self-organizational and self-learning. In this context, concepts have been developed for cost-effective restructuring measures during the operating phase which make a rapid response to dynamic changes and disturbances possible.

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.

An increasing customer-driven rate of individualisation as well as the lack of brand loyalty is leading to a greater competition within the automotive industry. Project organisations integrate innovations and technologies into the product under enormous permanent pressure. Especially the defined targets concerning time-to-market, costs, and quality set new challenges to the project management throughout the often decentralised innovation network of engineering partners and manufacturers.

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.