Manufacturing Systems
1
Understanding Manufacturing
Environments
2
Nature of Manufacturing
High Volume – Low Mix
Low Volume – High Mix High Volume – High Mix
3
What Kind of Mfg Environment ?
Make to stock Engineer to Order
Assemble to Order Make to Order
4
Make to stock
Relatively predictable demand mix
Companies try to anticipate demand and produce to stock
Products are stored in a finished goods warehouse
Product variety is usually limited but with high sales volume
Forecasts are developed for product families
Customer lead times are small (quick delivery times)
Buffer stocks are introduced to guard against stock-outs
Inventory costs are high
Customers do not have much choice due to limited variety
Product life cycles are fairly predictable
5
Assemble to Order
Wide range of products
Common core assemblies for most products
Ability to vary all other components of the final assembly
High level of modularity
Short customer delivery lead times
Core assemblies are manufactured in a ‘make to stock’ manner
Final assembly is driven by firm demand
No finished good inventory
Buffering is done at component and core assembly level
6
Make to Order
Customers place orders with their own specifications
Finished product is partially one of a kind
Final product is usually not designed from scratch
Drawings and designs are ready for a number of configurations
Customization is done to suit customer requirements
Product range is wide and sales volumes are difficult to forecast
Very low volume by a specific product
Interaction with customer is extensive
Customer lead times are from medium to long
Prior purchasing of only long lead time items (that too in small
numbers)
7
Engineer to Order
Extreme case of MTO
Product is designed and built from scratch
Every product is truly one of kind
Customer interaction is to a maximum
Very long lead times
Unique BoM (Bill of Material) for each product
8
Self study
Consider the manufacturing of following products
1. Earth moving equipment
2. Agriculture Pumps
3. Office furniture
4. Apparel
5. Ship building
6. Transformers
Think about the most likely manufacturing environment for the
companies manufacturing these products.
You should be able to justify through each of the features (you can think
of more) of these environments given on the earlier slides.
9
Manufacturing system types
Assembly Lines
Transfer lines
Manufacturing cells
Flexible manufacturing systems
Reconfigurable manufacturing systems
Assembly lines
Assembly lines
W
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Station 8 Station 7 Station 6 Station 5
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Station 1 Station 2 Station 3 Station 4
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The TRUMPF assembly line for Laser Cutting Machines
Transfer lines
Transfer lines are good for highly repetitive
and high volume production. But what they
don't offer is a great amount of flexibility.
After the part's life cycle is over, transfer lines
usually are not economical to retool.
In case of long product life cycles, the
equipment usually pays for itself before the
product is discontinued, so scrapping it may
not hurt the company's bottom line.
14
Manufacturing Cell
Input
buffer
Turning Drilling
Milling
output
Testing Grinding
buffer
Conventional Manufacturing Cell
FMS
A flexible manufacturing system (FMS) is a
form of flexible automation in which several
machines are linked together by a material-
handling system, and all aspects of the
system are controlled by a central computer.
An FMS is distinguished from an automated
production line by its ability to process a high
variety of jobs.
But the production rate is usually very low
17
Flexible Manufacturing System
Reconfigurable mfg. systems
DMS
RMS
Volume
D+E
C+D+E
A+B+C
FMS
A+B
Variety
Y. Koren, U. Heisel [1999]
RMS
In case of RMS, once the part's life-cycle is over,
the machine cell/line can be taken apart, retooled,
reprogrammed, different spindles added or changed
as needed, and then put back in service as another
cell--or the machines can be used as stand-alone
units.
20
Features of RMS
Features of Reconfigurable Machine Tools (RMT)
Capacity Changing RMT
Source: ERC at Univ. of Michigan
Material Handling: Gantry based loader
Material Handling: With work handling robots
Material Handling: With work handling robots
Long life cycle
Pay back period
Demand
Time
Medium life cycle
Pay back period
Demand
Time
Short life cycle
Pay back period
Demand
Time
Changing product mix
Product A
Demand
Product B
Product C
Time
What Kind of Process Layout ?
30
Functional Layout
Turning Drilling
Testing Testing
Grinding Milling
Flow Shop
1 2 3 4
If all the products to be made by a production system require
the same type of processing in the same sequence, It is
efficient to structure the process according to the flow of the
products or sequence of tasks.
Examples :
Assembly lines
Process plants
32
Job Shop
1 3 7
2 4 6 8
Uses general purpose equipment produce a variety of jobs.
When a wide variety of products are to be made by a
production system, Process flexibility is essential. Each job
can be routed through any machine as per the requirement of
the processing sequence for each job.
Example : Tool room 33
Mfg Cells
This setup is used when it required to produce families or
group of products that require similar processing steps.
An ideal cell manufactures a
narrow range of highly similar
products.
Such an ideal cell is self-
contained with all necessary
equipment and resources.
34
Fixed Position
Equipment, workers,
materials, other resources
brought to the site
Highly skilled labor
Typically high variable costs
Example:
Construction projects,
Aircraft Mfg.
Large Transformer Mfg. 35
Production Control: Managing assembly lines
Assembly Schedule
W
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8 7 6 5 e Standard
h components
1 2 3 4 o
u
Outsourced
s
components
e
Component mfg Sub-assemblies Purchase Order Suppliers
Kitting
Assembly
Schedule
Warehouse
Storage
Station Station Station Station Station Station Station Station
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Workstation replenishment every hr
Production Planning Horizons
Long-Range
Long-Range Capacity Planning (years)
Medium-Range
Aggregate Planning (6-18 months)
Short-Range
Master Production Scheduling (weeks)
Very-Short-Range
Production Planning and Control Systems
(hours - days)
QA