Showing papers in "International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing in 2007"

A simulated annealing-based optimization approach for integrated process planning and scheduling

Abstract: A job shop needs to deal with a lot of make-to-order business, in which the orders are usually diverse in types but each one is small in volume. To increase the flexibility and responsiveness of the job shop in the more competitive market, process planning and scheduling modules have been actively developed and deployed. The functions of the two modules are usually complementary. It is ideal to integrate them more tightly to achieve the global optimization of product development and manufacturing. In this paper, a unified representation model and a simulated annealing-based approach have been developed to facilitate the integration and optimization process. In the approach, three strategies, including processing flexibility, operation sequencing flexibility and scheduling flexibility, have been used for exploring the search space to support the optimization process effectively. Performance criteria, such as makespan, the balanced level of machine utilization, job tardiness and manufacturing cost, have been systematically defined to make the algorithm adaptive to meet various practical requirements. Case studies under various working conditions and the comparisons of this approach with two modern evolutionary approaches are given. The merits and characteristics of the approach are thereby highlighted.

Towards a classification framework for interoperability of enterprise applications

Abstract: Software applications interoperability is a challenge for modern enterprises. It needs establishing standards and protocols for data exchange between different enterprise systems. Nevertheless, since there is no methodology for collecting data, exchanged information is generally incomplete. Business process modelling aims at specifying object flows and processes inside enterprise levels and among networked enterprises. Enterprise-control systems aim at driving and scheduling the manufacturing resources based on information coming from the whole enterprise. However, the increased complexity of these models does not help to ensure coherent relationships between its components. In the current paper, the author will analyse how enterprise applications, models and standards used at different levels of the enterprise could be classified to come to a framework of many interoperability types.

System architecture for closed-loop PLM

Abstract: The closed-loop product life cycle management (closed-loop PLM) system focuses on tracking and managing the information of whole product life cycle, with possible feedback of information to product life cycle phases. It provides opportunities to reduce the inefficiency of life cycle operations and gain competitiveness. Thanks to the advent of hardware and software related to product identification technologies, e.g. radio frequency identification (RFID) technology, recently the closed-loop PLM has been highlighted as a tool of companies to enhance the performance of their business models. However, implementing the PLM system requires a high level of coordination and integration. To this end, it is prerequisite to investigate what are the main components for closed-loop PLM and how they are related to each other. To address this need, the curent study focuses on the system architecture of closed-loop PLM with respect to business model, hardware, and software.

Requirements on unique identifiers for managing product lifecycle information: comparison of alternative approaches

Abstract: Managing product information for product items during their whole lifetime is challenging, especially during their usage and end-of-life phases. The main difficulty is to maintain a communication link between the product item and its associated information as the product item moves over organizational borders and between different users. As network access will typically not be continuous during the whole product-item lifecycle, it is necessary to embed at least a globally unique product identifier (GUPI) that makes it possible to identify the product item anytime during its lifecycle. A GUPI also has to provide a linking mechanism to product information that may be stored in backend systems of different organizations. GUPIs are thereby a cornerstone for enabling the Internet of Things, where 'intelligent products' can communicate over the Internet. In the current paper, we analyse and compare the three main currently known approaches for achieving such functionality, i.e. the EPC Network, DIALOG and WWAI.

Generation of machine configurations based on product features

Abstract: A computer-aided process planning (CAPP) and machine assignment system, capable of coping with the changes in products and system, are required for reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) or other dynamic manufacturing environments. The capabilities of the machines and manufacturing systems in RMS change with each configuration. An approach is presented for selecting the different types of machine(s) and their appropriate configurations to produce different types of parts and features, according to the required machine capabilities. The structure of the machine tool is represented in a kinematic chain-like format that captures the number, type and order of different axes of motion on both the tool or workpiece side for the machine. The proposed method is illustrated with an example. More than one minimum machine configuration may be generated for a single-operation cluster, which increases the flexibility in machine tool selection. The developed approach is general in nature and not limited to RMS. It is applicable to any manufacturing system where dynamic and flexible process planning and machine assignments are required. It could serve as an important tool in aiding the machine assignment/selection and process planning activities at the initial stages of manufacturing systems design and subsequent changes in products scope, and facilities expansion, downsizing and modification.

An end-of-life decision support tool for product recovery considerations in the footwear industry

Abstract: The footwear industry is a manufacturing sector that utilizes a wide variety of materials and processes to produce a range of distinctly different products, from sandals to more specialized footwear. Currently, more than 19 billion pairs of shoes are produced worldwide every year. This creates a large waste stream at the end of the functional life of shoes, which are often disposed of in landfills. Producer responsibility concerns, forthcoming legislation and increasingly environmentally conscious consumers are expected to challenge the way the global footwear industry is dealing with its end-of-life (EoL) products. This paper highlights the potential benefits of developing a footwear product recovery methodology and an associated software tool to support decision-making to determine the most suitable (in environmental, economic and social-technical terms) manner in which to treat post-consumer shoe waste. Such a methodology, in addition to supporting design and material selection processes, could also provide benchmark information for the selection of the best EoL practice for a selected range of different shoe types. The paper concludes by providing a computational viewpoint of an EoL shoe recovery decision support tool.

Flexible multi-sensorial system for automatic disassembly using cooperative robots

Abstract: Flexible multisensorial systems are a very important issue in the current industry when disassembling and recycling tasks have to be performed. These tasks can be performed by a human operator or by a robot system. In the current paper a robotic system to perform the required tasks is presented. This system takes into consideration the distribution of the necessary tasks to perform the disassembly of a component using several robots in a parallel or in a cooperative way. The algorithm proposed to distribute the task among robots takes into consideration the characteristics of each task and the sequence that needs to be followed to perform the required disassembly of the product. Furthermore, this paper presents a disassembly system based on a sensorized cooperative robots interaction framework for the planning of movements and detections of objects in the disassembly tasks. To determine the sequence of the disassembly of some products, a new strategy to distribute a set of tasks among robots is presented. Subsequently, the visual detection system used for detecting targets and characteristics is described. To carry out this detection process, different well known strategies, such as matching templates, polygonal approach and edge detection, are applied. Finally, a visual-force control system has been implemented in order to track disassembly trajectories. An important aspect of this system is the processing of the sensorial information in order to guarantee coherence. This aspect allows the application of both sensors, visual and force sensors, co-ordinately to disassembly tasks. The proposed system is validated by experiments using several types of components such as the covers of batteries and electronic circuits from toys, and drives and screws from PCs.

Extended QFD and data-mining-based methods for supplier selection in mass customization

Abstract: In mass customization, different kinds of customer requirements should be satisfied by the manufacturer. Supplier selection is one important task in supply-chain management. Effective supplier selection calls for robust analytical methods and decision-support tools. This research aims to develop a supplier selection methodology based on extended quality function deployment (QFD) and data-mining (DM) techniques. Through considering customer requirement and performance of components in a product's full life-cycle, the manufacturer can use data-mining techniques to find out quality requirements correlated to customer categories, product usage patterns, and frequent fault patterns in order to select the proper combination of suppliers. In this way, the manufacturer can decrease costs, raise product quality, and improve customer satisfaction. Related data-mining algorithms for supplier selection are presented. Customer requirement analysis is also studied in the paper, and transcendental and empirical customer requirement analysis methods are put forward. A case study is provided in detail. Finally, as a part of the supply-chain management system, a supplier selection prototype system is designed and implemented. Evaluation of experiments in an automobile manufacturing enterprise verifies the feasibility and efficiency of our method.

Rapid manufactured textiles

Abstract: Rapid Manufacturing (RM) is increasingly becoming a viable manufacturing process due to dramatic advantages that are achievable in the area of design complexity. Through the exploration of the design freedom afforded by RM, this paper introduces the concept and novel research area of RM textiles. The paper highlights the design and manufacturing possibilities applied to textiles when considering additive manufacturing techniques, the current limitations of conventional Computer Aided Design (CAD) software when creating RM textile three-dimensional (3D) data and the potential use of dedicated 'textile CAD'. A methodology for the generation of 3D conformal RM textile articles is presented in addition to the initial investigation of 'efficient manufacture' by the collapsing of RM textile structures into their lowest potential energy state. The work concludes that through the utilization of RM it is entirely possible to manufacture a structure that incorporates drape and free movement properties directly comparable with conventional textiles.

Digital Enterprise Technology

Abstract: (2003). Digital Enterprise Technology. International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing: Vol. 16, No. 7-8, pp. 465-466.

Quantifying the flexibility of a manufacturing system by applying the transfer function

Abstract: This paper discusses a method of estimating the flexibility of a manufacturing system. The proposed approach is motivated by the dynamic behaviour analogy between a mechanical and a manufacturing system. The main hypothesis is that the flexibility of a manufacturing system can be calculated in the same manner as the damping factor of a mechanical system. In order for the validity of the proposed method to be tested and discussed, a set of experiments has been designed and executed, initially for a simple production system. An industrial production system has also been studied using the same approach. The results prove that this method can be used for the estimation of a manufacturing system's flexibility.

A new software platform to support feature-based process planning for interoperable STEP-NC manufacture

Abstract: Computer numerical control (CNC) manufacturing has evolved with the use of faster, more precise and more capable CNC controllers and machine tools. The enhancements in machine tools however have not been integrated under a common platform to support computer aided design (CAD)/computer aided manufacturing (CAM)/CNC software interoperability and as a result a plethora of standards are being used for these systems. ISO 10303 (STEP) and ISO 14649 (STEP-NC) seek to eliminate the barriers in the exchange of information in the CNC manufacturing chain and enable interoperability throughout the manufacturing software domain. With the progress on standardization and implementation, computer systems in the manufacturing process chain require evolution to support the STEP-compliant planning and manufacture. The current paper introduces a novel software platform entitled the Integrated Platform for Process Planning and Control (IP3AC) to support STEP-NC compliant process planning (computer aided process planning (CAPP)/CAM). A prototype process planning system (PPS) based on the platform is then presented as a sample application in the light of future interoperable planning and manufacture. The PPS has been developed with the application of a two-stage strategy for STEP-NC part program generation, namely general workplan generation and specific workplan generation. The work is verified through the use of case study components.

An ant colony optimization algorithm for scheduling virtual cellular manufacturing systems

Abstract: This paper presents a methodology to solve the manufacturing cell creation and the production scheduling problems for designing virtual cellular manufacturing systems (VCMSs). The objective is to minimize the total materials and components travelling distance incurred. The methodology consists of (i) a mathematical model that describes the characteristics of a VCMS and includes constraints such as delivery due dates of products, maximum capacities of resources, critical tools limitation, and (ii) an ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithm for manufacturing cell formation and production scheduling. Since the proposed ACO algorithm does not indicate a feasible schedule explicitly, two simple heuristics are developed to assign workstations to the operations of the jobs, and to construct the final schedule. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, both the ACO algorithm and the genetic algorithm are applied to design manufacturing cells for a company in China producing internal combustion engine components. Comparison of the results obtained with the results supplied by the company on the existing manufacturing system show that both the ACO algorithm and the genetic algorithm together with the virtual cellular manufacturing concept perform better than the current manufacturing practice in terms of average workstation utilization, product completion time and system throughput. Also, the results of a set of randomly generated numerical experiments show that the proposed ACO algorithm generates excellent final solutions in a much shorter computation time when compared with the genetic algorithm. Therefore, the mathematical model and the ACO algorithm proposed in this paper form a simple, but effective and efficient methodology to solve the manufacturing cell creation and production scheduling problems for designing VCMSs.

Rapid tooling route selection for metal casting using QFD-ANP methodology

Abstract: An integrated methodology using quality function deployment (QFD) and analytic network process (ANP) is proposed to determine and prioritize the engineering requirements of a cast part, based on the customer needs, for selecting and evaluating an appropriate rapid prototyping (RP)-based route for tooling fabrication. The QFD incorporates a planning matrix to translate the customer needs into measurable engineering requirements using a robust evaluation method based on ANP. Experimental data generated by carrying out benchmarking studies of widely used RP processes were used to facilitate assignment of relative weights in ANP. The methodology is demonstrated and validated with an industrial example of a separator body casting. It has proved to be a robust evaluation and decision-making tool for selecting appropriate tooling route for a given casting based on customer requirements.

The enhanced use of enterprise and simulation modellingtechniques to support factory changeability

Abstract: Bearing in mind that activity requirements of manufacturing enterprises (MEs) can usefully be described as a network of dependent processes, the current paper identifies complementary properties of state-of-the-art enterprise modelling and simulation modelling techniques. It is observed that, when these techniques are used in a coherent fashion, they have potential to create semantically rich models of process networks that can be computer-executed so as to replicate and/or predict organizational behaviours. The current paper describes an outline of how a particular choice of well-proved enterprise modelling and simulation modelling techniques can be used in an integrated fashion. Also described are interim research findings when using such an integrated modelling approach in a case study furniture making company. For key segments of business processes currently deployed by the case study company, the outcome has been new qualitative and quantitative understandings about (a) alternative ways of organizing multi-product flows through a constrained (in situ) set of human and technical resources and (b) potential performance enhancements that could be achieved in process segments by purchasing, commissioning and deploying alternative systems of human and technical resources. Research groundwork is now in place to support the case study company as in the future it makes (a) medium-to-long term investment decisions about new manufacturing control strategies and the purchase of new resource systems and (b) short-to-medium term production planning and control decisions.

e2-MES: an e-service-driven networked manufacturing platform for extended enterprises

Abstract: Currently, networked manufacturing is regarded as a new manufacturing mode. Extended enterprise is a type of new organizational mode of enterprises for networked manufacturing, which has become the key point for enterprises winning competitions in global markets. Nowadays, many researches and major contributions have been found on networked manufacturing and extended enterprise from academic to industrial areas. However, they mainly focus on partial conceptual/theoretical and practical application fields. How to build the models for networked manufacturing and extended enterprise, satisfactorily control the manufacturing processes at the level of extended enterprise, etc. is becoming a bottleneck. In order to overcome these limitations, on the basis of the philosophy of services driving manufactures, a kind of e-service-driven networked manufacturing model is put forward. In order to implement this model some key enabling techniques are discussed in detail. These include: e-formalizing bottom manufacturing resources; up-streaming manufacturing data; generating an extended enterprise tree that consists of core enterprise and co-enterprises based on products to be manufactured; configuring a networked manufacturing executive system at the level of extended enterprise; scheduling the manufacturing processes by means of the bottom-up strategy; tracking the manufacturing processes in the range of extended enterprise; and collaborating in the manufacturing processes. Furthermore, a test bed called e2-MES is developed with Java web solution. The running example from the industry indicates that the above ideas are feasible and practical.

An implementation of modelling resource in a manufacturing grid for resource sharing

Abstract: Grid technology is a new sustentation for the sharing of global manufacturing resources To promote the application of grid technologies in the manufacturing industry, a framework for a manufacturing grid (MG) has been expatiated The framework is composed of a network infrastructure layer, a manufacturing resource aggregation layer, a manufacturing resource management layer, a manufacturing service application layer and a MG portal layer Modelling manufacturing resources, one key technology of implementing the MG application system, has been studied intensively A manufacturing resource hierarchy model (MRHM), which consists of a manufacturing resource layer, a resource expressing layer and a resource interface layer, is proposed In the model, various manufacturing resources are aggregated into a resource layer; all resource information is encapsulated in an information expressing layer employing XML (extensible markup language) schema; all accessing operations to resources are defined in the resource interface layer using WSDL (web service description language) Lastly, being the validation of MRHM, a standard part library system based on Unigraphics180 and SQL Server2000 is encapsulated as a resource node in the MG The node provides online services like querying information for standard parts, viewing and downloading geometry models of standard parts, and so on

Production-process modelling based on production-management data: a Petri-net approach

Abstract: During the development of a production control system, an appropriate model of the production process is needed to evaluate the various control strategies. This paper describes how to apply timed Petri nets and existing production data to the modelling of production systems. Information concerning the structure of a production facility and the products that can be produced is usually given in production-data management systems. We describe a method for using these data to construct a Petri-net model algorithmically. The timed Petri-net simulator, which was constructed in Matlab, is also described. This simulator makes it possible to introduce heuristics, and, in this way, various production scenarios can be evaluated. To demonstrate the applicability of our approach, we applied it to a scheduling problem in the production of furniture fittings.

Nesting of two-dimensional irregular parts: an integrated approach

Abstract: The present paper reports an intelligent computer-aided nesting (CAN) system for optimal nesting of two-dimensional parts, especially parts with complicated shapes, with the objective of effectively improving the utilization ratio of sheet materials. This paper also systemically reviews the nesting algorithms that were developed to perform various nesting tasks, and attacks the irregular part nesting problem by efficiently integrating and improving the performance of nesting algorithms such as the rectangular enclosure method, bottom-left nesting algorithms, heuristic algorithms and genetic algorithms. The CAN system has also been developed as a nesting algorithm test platform for researching and developing new nesting algorithms. Through this test platform, the limitations of existing nesting algorithms are investigated and problems such as nesting parts in spaces within a single part or between parts are also studied. Efforts have been devoted to improving the nesting efficiency of the existing algorithms and developing new nesting algorithms. Case studies are carried out in a sheet metal cutting company. The results show that the intelligent CAN system can effectively nest both regular and irregular parts, and greatly improve the utilization ratio of raw sheet material.

Applying mass customization to the production of industrial steam turbines

Abstract: An industrial steam turbine is typically an engineered-to-order product, so the principle and methods of mass customization are widely applied in its production. We can re-engineer the development design process of this product into two phases - innovative development process and agile design process - and perform product family-oriented modularized development. The product's master structure model is used for configuration design, and its part/component models are used for variant design. Together, the configuration design and variant design constitute rapid product design. Furthermore, through standardization, modularization, serialization, process reengineering, rapid design and automated manufacturing, the customer order decoupling point of product and its parts/components are postponed. In the production process, some effective measures should be taken such as orders-merging production, unified materials ordering and unified parts/components manufacturing, in order to enhance the batch profit. Adopting product family-oriented ABC analysis, the rough product structure can be built. Thus, product cost and lead-time are estimated on the basis of practical cases, and hence, the possible production plan can be worked out. The successful application of mass customization will effectively shorten lead-time and remarkably reduce production cost of the steam turbine.

A neural network-based approach for optimising rubber extrusion lines

Abstract: The current study shows how data mining and artificial intelligence techniques can be used to introduce improvements in the rubber extrusion production process. One of the keys for planning manufacturing values is prior knowledge of the properties of the material to be extruded. At present, such information is obtained through laboratory trials performed on samples taken off line after the elastomers have been manufactured, with the subsequent cost and delays. In view of these problems, the present study proposes a neural model capable of predicting the characteristics of rubber from the composition of the mixture and the mixing conditions, without having to wait for laboratory results, thus guaranteeing the traceability of the product in the process and the values according to their specific characteristics and also achieving a reduction in costs deriving from smaller amounts of discarded material during the performance of the tests, etc.

Determining numbers of workstations and operators for a linear walking-worker assembly line

Abstract: This paper presents an investigation into a system of linear walking-worker (WW) assembly lines that have been implemented in a local small and medium enterprise (SME). The work aims to observe the relevant impact on logical interactions and interrelationships between the number of workstations and the number of walking workers against the system performance and to minimize these numbers providing a quick response in re-configuration of the system to meet a given output and cycle time. This has been achieved by developing a simulation model for a theoretical study into the linear WW system using a manufacturing-focused simulation tool. By examination of the results of a series of simulation experiments, a minimization of the numbers of workstations and walking workers for a linear WW line configuration can be quantified. The research concluded that this multiskilled linear WW assembly line is able to sustain a higher flexibility and efficiency as compared with a conventional linear fixed-worker (FW) assembly line under similar conditions.

A new multiobjective genetic algorithm with heterogeneous population for solving flowshop scheduling problems

Abstract: The present paper discusses the application of a new genetic algorithm (GA) featuring heterogeneous population to solve multiobjective flowshop scheduling problems. Many GAs have been developed to solve multiobjective scheduling problems, but they used a non-heterogeneous population approach, which could lead to premature convergence and local Pareto-optimum solutions. Our experiments with a 20-job and 20-machine benchmark problem given in Taillard (1993) show that the heterogeneous multiobjective genetic algorithm (hMGA) developed in this research outperforms NSGA-II (Deb 2001) one of the widely used algorithms with non-heterogeneous population. Moreover, in this paper we also present the comparison of hMGA with another meta-heuristic method, i.e. multi-objective simulated annealing (MOSA), proposed by Varadharajan and Rajendran (2005). This research concludes that hMGA developed in this work is promising as it can produce a new set of Pareto-optimum solutions that have not been found by MOSA before.

A web-based multi-agent system for distributed digital manufacturing

Abstract: A framework for a web-based multi-agent system (WebMAS) is proposed to facilitate collaborative product development and production among geographically distributed functional agents using digitalized information. Considering the complexity of products created in a distributed manufacturing scenario, this often requires close collaboration among a number of facilities. In this research, a prototype system where different distributed functional agents, namely, a manufacturability evaluation agent, manufacturing resource agent, process-planning agent, manufacturing scheduling agent, shop-floor agent, fault diagnosis agent, etc., interact coherently to realize the development of physical parts. With specific agents having unique functionalities, a manufacturing managing agent acts as the centre of the system thus coordinating the activities of the participating agents while ensuring seamless work flow and collaboration. This facilitates optimization of the part production cycle from product design to final manufacturing because all the production procedures are correlated and considered logically. The agents communicate through the knowledge query manipulation language, which includes many pre-defined performatives to aid the participating agents in carrying out their tasks intelligently by interpreting commands from one another. In this paper, a case study based on the developed prototype WebMAS system is discussed to illustrate the system.

A networked virtual manufacturing system for SMEs

Abstract: Virtual manufacturing is an integrated system of CAD/CAM, virtual prototyping, virtual reality, production planning and control. It enables rapid and efficient product development by composing an accurate and integrated computer model in manufacturing systems. The virtual manufacturing technology can be shared using a networked system. This approach can be called networked virtual manufacturing (net-VM). The distributed, collaborated, and interactive operations are its major features of the net-VM. This paper proposes a net-VM to share usage of the latest integrated design and manufacturing facilities for SMEs. The paper discusses the key technology of the system development. Some sub-systems developed are used to demonstrate the proposed system and methods.

A fixture design system for networked manufacturing

Abstract: Fixture design is a complex and intuitive process. An efficient fixture design system is essential to cut costs and reduce product lead time. For networked manufacturing, the fixture design system must contain characteristics of rapid configuration designing, three-dimensional (3D) modelling, a completely standardized elements database, and it should be able to transfer information with various other systems. For the requirement of rapid configuration design, based on the analysis of the contents and characteristics of fixture design, a hybrid CBR/KBR (case-based reasoning/knowledge-based reasoning) fixture design method is proposed, with CBR as its core, KBR as its assistant and CBR as the support of case-adaptation process. Using design information, the designer can obtain a satisfactory subset of possible configuration designs of a fixture from the KBR process. Then the designer, using this subset and other information (via FIXCOD system), can obtain a similar design of the fixture from the retrieving case database, and then finally use the CBR adaptation technique to obtain the satisfied design of fixture. Networked information releasing technology is applied to part design in the computer aided design (CAD) system, and a new 3D modelling method is presented, driven by networked parameters. The data on the web are integrated into the CAD system to realize multithreading data exchange between the web information releasing system and the CAD system, which will make the CAD system obtain data from the web. Then networked 3D modelling will be realized by the driving of parameters from the web, and a proved model based on CATIA is provided. The internet and the use of extensible mark-up language (XML) as a file format provide a means for the transfer of information and knowledge between the various computer aided manufacturing (CAM) systems. The system has been implemented using Java and is based on a three-tier browser/server (B/S) architecture. This ensures the platform independent performance of the system.

Workflow-based dynamic scheduling of job shop operations

Abstract: In a job shop such as a mould-making shop, dispatching decisions as to which job should be loaded on a machine when it becomes free are termed dynamic scheduling. A practical approach to dynamic job-shop scheduling is the use of discrete event simulation, and their dedicated simulation-based dynamic scheduling systems, often known as manufacturing execution systems or advanced planning systems, are available. In the present paper, we propose a workflow-based dynamic scheduling framework, in which a workflow management system (WfMS) serves as a dynamic job-shop scheduler. For this purpose, we have developed an algorithm for embedding a discrete-event simulation mechanism into a WfMS, and have implemented a prototype job-shop scheduler. Illustrative performance evaluation shows that the proposed framework is logically valid and computationally efficient.

Ontology-based artefact management in automotive electronics

Abstract: The current paper presents work in progress in integrated management of artefacts inautomotive electronics with a focus on requirements. A case study on industrial requirements management was performed in a Swedish automotive supplier of software-intensive systems. Based on this case study, a frame concept for integrated model management is proposed. One core element in implementing the frame concept is an ontology-based domain repository. Concepts, architecture and realization of a domain-repository are introduced. The domain repository is based on RDF, RDFS and TRIPLE and includes extensions supporting navigation in the artefact net and derivation of new knowledge: modlets, actlets and spot views.

Implementation approach of ERP with mass customization

Abstract: This paper analyses the shortage of traditional enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems in the current dynamic and competitive enterprise environment. The new-generation ERP system needs to be frequently customized with low cost, high quality and efficiency, as is similar to the product of mass customization (MC). Owing to this kind of similarity, an implementation framework of ERP with MC principles (MC-ERP) is proposed based on the three fundamental principles of MC. An enterprise modelling-based enterprise total solution, which is the starting point of this framework, is introduced. In order to solve the function deployment approach, which is a key technology of the framework, an approach based on quality function deployment methodology is also discussed. For realization and validation, the architecture of a toolset for implementing MC-ERP is finally proposed, and the enterprise modelling tool, the kernel of this toolset, has been developed.

Development of a robot control method for curved seal extrusion for high productivity in an advanced Toyota production system

Abstract: Recent Japanese enterprises have been promoting global production to realize uniform quality worldwide and production at optimal locations for survival amid severe competition. The authors considered the necessity of including the above method in the strategic application of the Toyota production system (TPS), and clarified Advanced TPS as the global production by manufacturing technology. In the future, reformation of the production workshops transformed by robotics and IT will be necessary in order to keep the same quality worldwide and production at optimum locations. Thus manufacturing technology had to be improved for mass production by developing the latest robot control methods. So far, the authors have established a robot control method for global production called RCM-EPC. RCM-EPC contains a three-core robot control method with (i) locus and speed control of the external point (-LSC), (ii) simulation for optimizing the operation position (-SOP) and (iii) constant speed control for robot movement (-CSC). Furthermore robots are applied to several applications in order to improve productivity and achieve a high-quality appearance. In particular, the authors here introduce an up-to-date glass-integrated curved seal extrusion (CSE), which is a new technology for use in manufacturing: the automobile-window mole as an example for Toyota - one of the most advanced automotive manufacturing enterprises in the world. With the demonstration of a 50% reduction in manufacturing costs using Advanced TPS, the authors have achieved high productivity and quality assurance in global production.