Manufacturing Overview

Outline

The Evolution of Manufacturing

Industrial Revolution

Various industrial revolution developed the next level of production and manufacturing innovation throughout history, beginning with simple manual labor evolving to intelligence robotics.

  • 1st (1700-1800's): Manufacturing evolved from manual labor to steam powered machine tools including the spinning jenny, windmill, and milling machine

  • 2nd (early 1900's): Steel and electricity were first introduced, leading to mobile machinery and the assembly line

  • 3rd (late 1950's): Electricity became more heavily incorporated and evolved to the use of computers, digital technology, and automation software

  • 4th (present): Known as "Industry 4.0", the emerging revolution of digital, real-time data, and comprehensive systems that encompass various aspects of manufacturing within one system

Assembly Line

The introduction of the assembly line by Henry Ford changed the entire manufacturing industry, allowing specialization of labor to increase quality and efficiency.

Types of assembly lines:

  • Classic- A number of steps done in sequence by different specialized workers to provide nearly identical large and/or complex products

  • Automated- Similar to classic, but fewer humans and more computer controlled machines in the sequence

  • Intermittent- Produces similar but customizable products by allowing the consumer to choose from various options at some steps in the sequence

  • Lean- Similar to classic but with teams of labor at each step rather than a single worker, allows for diversification of skills and tasks per worker

Manufacturing Processes

Robots are capable of many tasks within the manufacturing process including:

However there are still many processes at a lower Technology Readiness Level (TRL) that are still in the research stage:

  • Polymer Casting

  • Rotational Molding

  • Vacuum Forming

  • Electroplating

  • Plating

  • Anodizing

Optimal Manufacturing

Optimizing the manufacturing pipeline from raw material to delivery requires minimizing labor and time while maximizing output and revenue.


Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing is the process of minimizing waste throughout an entire supply chain, where "waste" refers to physical material waste, time, cost, labor, and quality.


Lean Methods

  • Just-in-Time (JIT) Production: Determines consumer value of a product, its necessary means of production, errors present, and produces only enough to meet demand

  • Waste Elimination: No standing inventory, unusable by-product, or bottleneck backups within the entire production process

  • Kaizen: A continuously improving manufacturing cycle where everything is documented accurately to ensure advancement

  • Heijunka: Keeping consistent production by averaging past orders to avoid overproduction or underproduction

  • One Piece Flow: Developing a continuous flow where only one task is focused at a time, so that there is only one item in queue at any given time

  • Poka-Yoke: Engineering the manufacturing process to prevent mistakes using standards to catch and correct mistakes early

  • Jidoka: Uses autonomous robots to detect defects, removes potential human error

Vertical Integration

Expanding a business by acquiring other companies within its supply chain is a method to control and optimize more of the production process. This allows for a large increase of communication and collaboration between steps in the entire procedure.

Warehousing

Effective warehousing is an intricate step in the manufacturing process to efficiently output products to their destinations.

Material Synchronization

Material Synchronization is developing an approach for materials to flow from step to step in a coordinated fashion without interruptions. This flow is set up in a "node" fashion, where machines work in parallel to complete a particular step or task. This allows for stability as well as flexibility in a changing environment.


Warehouse Management

Warehouse management is the overview of all operations within a warehouse. There are various softwares available for use to guide inventory to optimize output.


These software services include:

  • Asset & raw materials management

  • Automated ordering and purchasing

  • Cycle counting

  • Reporting , billing, and invoicing

  • Shipping and receiving

  • Inventory predictions

Supply Chain Model

The Supply Chain Model refers to the sequence of processes involved in the production and distribution of a product. There are various structures to choose from when trying to optimize a product’s creation and flow from raw material sourcing to production, logistics and delivery to the final customer.



Model Types

  • Agile: a flexible structure for speciality items where the flow is easy to alter based on current demand

  • Continuous Flow: high demand markets with little fluctuation needing the same goods repetitively

  • Custom Configured: the combination of agile and continuous flow for custom configurations in assembly and production

  • Efficient Chain: for competitive markets where end to end efficiency is most important

  • Fast Chain: trendy products that have a short life cycle, production is in while the trend is alive and out as it dies

  • Flexible: able to meet high and low demand without waste or underproduction, easy to speed up or slow down

  • Supply Chain Management (SCM): software developed models created to optimize a particular supply chain

Computers in Manufacturing

Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)


Computer integrated manufacturing is the process of using computers to control an entire production process. This integration of computers allows constant communications between the entire process, computers executing individual steps can exchange information with others to produce with higher speed and less error.



Collaborative Platform Development


A virtual workspace can be used to develop an entire system of computer controlled manufacturing. This platform centralizes resources and tools for easy communication and interactions between workers and computers. These workspaces include project updates, monitoring, management, document sharing, and any other necessary information.


Process Control


Closed-loop controlled manufacturing is constant self-measuring and checking by the production machines on itself and its products. The machine continuously analyzes and improves its own process until the desired success rate is achieved. If done correctly, this will reduce tool costs, improve accuracy and quality, as well as disperse labor more effectively.


Computer Aided Design (CAD)


CAD is used in manufacturing to design and manufacture prototypes, finished products, and machines. Access to these realistis models allows the proposal and trial of many objects without wasting materials ir machinery. A prototype can be deemed successful or not without any actual creation.


Programmable Logic Controller (PLC)


A PLC is an industrial computer that has been adapted to control manufacturing processes since the late 1960's. The PLC intakes information and determines the most logical course of action for the machines within a production line to execute. This innovative device has been developed to be smaller with more power and speed, and with the implementation of artificial intelligence with the PLC, it will have a much wider range of possibilities by making its own predictions and optimal decisions.

Industry 4.0

The newest phase in the industrial revolution is referred to as Industry 4.0 with the implementation of artificial intelligence within manufacturing. The following innovations are integral aspects to AI manufacturing robotics to perform tasks with through and precision rather than hard coded automation.

Key Innovations

Real Time Sensor Input: Machines are able to intake and analyze objects in front of them in real time using sensors

  • Temperature

  • Proximity

  • Pressure

  • Infrared

Interconnectivity: The Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) where devices are digitally interconnected to increase visibility, traceability, and accurate reporting

  • Broadcasting live inventory throughout a warehouse

  • Using radio frequencies to track and manage the inventory

  • Fleet management


Smart Manufacturing: The widespread digitization of manufacturing processes


  • AI & Machine Learning

  • Virtual/Augmented Reality

  • Automation Robotics

  • Additive/Hybrid Manufacturing

  • Cloud Computing

  • Simulation


Big Data: With the plethora of modern advanced technology, there are large and complex datasets being developed

  • Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) for internal information exchange

  • Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) for precise control for manufacturing processes

  • Customer Relationship Management (CRM) for a central location with all customer data


Big Data Analysis: The big data gathered must be analyzed for meaning and desired output

  • Analytics and Summarization

  • Information Extraction

  • Question answering

Resources

Image Sources

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