Showing papers on "Production engineering published in 2001"

What is engineering management

Abstract: The question, "what is engineering management?" has certainly been addressed before in both professional articles and textbooks. However, it seems appropriate to again address this question because of the renewed interest in engineering management. This renewed interest comes in many forms, but two stand out. The first is the increasing trend to give engineering management assignments earlier and earlier in a new engineering graduate's career. The second is the emphasis of engineering management skills in ABET 2000 in the undergraduate engineering program. Both of these initiatives seem to be led by industry and may be a direct result of industry's interest in engineering management skills as a competitive advantage as well as their downsizing practices, which have resulted in the more experienced engineers retiring early and their responsibilities being pushed down to the more junior engineers. If you believe, as does this author, that before you can become a good engineering manager you should first be a good engineer, then the trend of giving management assignments before engineers have had an opportunity to become well grounded in their engineering disciplines should be disturbing. This could eventually affect a company's ability to continue to play a leadership role in introducing new technologies. Hence, the question "what is engineering management?" is an important question. This article attempts to answer the question by addressing when engineering management skills are needed in an engineer's career.

Manufacturing: A Strategic Opportunity for Engineering Education

Abstract: This paper examines the importance of the manufacturing enterprise and the need for manufacturing education. The objective is to present a case for the expansion of manufacturing-related education as a strategic opportunity for engineering education. A brief history of engineering education is presented, as well as an exploration of the current ABET criteria for various engineering disciplines. Approaches for achieving manufacturing-related education are presented noting that Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Engineering are often most closely associated with manufacturing. Surveys of industry reveal the need for manufacturing education and identify preferred approaches. If manufacturing is to be included as part of a mechanical engineering program, there are a number of possible approaches. Of all the new technologies that will impact engineering education, none is larger than the Internet. The number of manufacturing educational programs in the United States is growing substantially. New manufacturing programs are encouraged along with review of educational content in traditional engineering disciplines-especially the related discipline of mechanical engineering. Analysis leads us to believe that manufacturing represents a strategic direction and opportunity for engineering education to pursue.

Engineering change: A theoretical assessment and a case study

Abstract: The competitive playground where nowadays firms struggle to survive has rapidly become unforeseeable: product life cycle has shrunk, becoming even shorter than in the past, and world-wide market is suffering for a strong customer differentiation which led to an increasingly wide product mix. In this industrial environment, the engineering change process is getting more and more attention throughout the branches of industry, as it appears as a critical process which seeps into the operations management core, thus influencing the overall firm's performances. A brief state-of-the-art in the area of engineering change is firstly presented. Then a proposal of classification and a new methodology for an effective engineering change process management are suggested. The new proposed methodology has been successfully applied to a real-life manufacturing system and the related case study is reported at the end of the paper.

Management of Technology

Abstract: Are some management practices akin to a technology that can explain company and national productivity, or are do they simply reflect alternative styles? We collect panel data on core management practices in over 10,000 firms in 30 countries. We find large cross country differences, with the US having the highest size-weighted average management score. About one fifth of these cross-country management differences are due to stronger reallocation effects which rewards better managed firms with greater market share. We present a formal model of management and structurally estimate it on our panel data to recover parameters including the adjustment costs of managerial capital (which are twice those of tangible capital). Our model also predicts (i) a positive effect of management on firm performance; (ii) a positive effect of product market competition on average management quality and its covariance with firm size; and (iii) a rise (fall) in the level (dispersion) of management with firm age. These are not moments we use in the structural estimation and we find empirical support for these predictions in new data. Finally, building on our model we find that differences in management practices explain about one quarter of cross-country productivity differences. JEL No. L2, M2, O32, O33.

Discrete simulation development for a proposed shipyard steel processing facility

Abstract: This paper describes the efforts required to convert conceptual designs and undefined processes for a proposed advanced steel processing shipyard facility into a discrete event simulation. Modeling of a completely non-existent entity poses many difficulties, yet the results can still be beneficial. The lack of actual production data and corresponding business rules, causes an in-depth review of all available information combined with that which can be extrapolated from vendor specification sheets or human experience. Most of the equipment required for this advanced processing facility will be custom built to suit the needs of this highly technical complex. This facility which will ultimately support construction of vessels, was driven by high expectations of improved production efficiencies. The model is expected to support not only the preconstruction design phases of the building, but also to serve as a post-construction production planning tool.

Synthesis and Adaption of Multiagent Communication Protocols in the Production Engineering Domain

Abstract: The application of multiagent systems is often based on the claim that there will be an emergent behavior within these systems. To reach the emergent behavior many researcher propagate to plan it within design and analysis of specific systems, as it will not occur by chance. We are presenting a new way to adaptive agent communication protocols with respect to a possible gain of emergent behavior. Communication protocols can be generated, refined or adapted by the agents autonomously. The approach uses basic concepts of machine learning.

Flexible Process Planning and Production Control Using Co-Operative Agent Systems

Abstract: Nowadays, one of the greatest challenges companies have to face is the change towards flexible and demand-driven production. More information has to be handled and a considerable speed-up of development and manufacturing processes is needed. However, the actual situation is characterized by strong borderlines between process planning, production control and scheduling systems, caused by extreme specialisation and independent historical paths of system evolution. This gap implies loss of time and of information. Thus, there is a strong need for innovative concepts for management and control of integrated information logistics, production scheduling and process planning. Agent-based information technologies like the innovative concept of co-operative agent systems are promising approaches for more flexible and distributed production networks. Agents are autonomously, co-operatively and goal-oriented acting intelligent software units. The use of agents for managing information within production control and process planning makes short term and flexible reaction to unexpected events and disturbances in manufacturing (e.g. break down of machines or lack of other resources as well as unexpected change of market situation) possible. Thus, enterprises will react to changing requirements in a more flexible way and will be able to face the challenges of international competition successfully.

Enhancement of distributed production systems through software agents

Abstract: Much work is in progress in order to improve acceptability, effectiveness and service of modern production systems. This is particularly true when ecology and the new e-business constraints are considered. Within this framework, the use of software agents in factory automation is a rather new topic. We present the EC-funded PABADIS project, which aims at employing partially mobile software agents to facilitate production planning and eliminate constraints of the traditional centralized approach. To this end, actual production units need to be equipped with appropriate agent platforms, which in turn must have access to a control device to allow for vertical integration. We discuss design options for these interconnections, which effectively have gateway functionality. The still ongoing project is expected to contribute to meeting the requirements of the next generation of production systems.

Computer-aided manufacturing simulation (CAMS) generation for interactive analysis: concepts, techniques, and issues

Abstract: Simulation models are usually developed as a one-time use analytical models by a systems analyst (usually from an external firm) rather than for routine and interactive use by a shop floor engineer. This is because it usually takes a longer time to generate a result from the simulation, and the simulation model of a manufacturing system is usually too sophisticated and time-consuming to use as an interactive tool by the manufacturing/production engineer. A CAMS reduces this complication by encapsulating the 'complicated-logic' and automating the 'tedious data-acquisition' with a more user-friendly interface like a spreadsheet or database input form. The paper describes how CAMS can automatically generate a simulation model; specifically, techniques and issues to structure the model to hide those tasks, so that it is a user-friendly interactive decision support with minimal amount of automation code. The paper concludes with a capacity analysis example from the real industry.

An elaborate analysis of production systems in industry: what a consultant should know

Abstract: It is common knowledge that during the last decade markets have become extremely competitive with product variety increasing continuously and product life cycles shortening. Many manufacturing companies, which hitherto satisfied their customers while operating specific production systems, were recently obliged to reconsider because of the potential superiority of other “manufacturing philosophies”. In the literature, we meet a great variety of production systems and manufacturing philosophies, while, on the other side, in industry we usually find different combinations of “primary” productions systems. In this paper, we present the existing “state‐of‐the‐art” theoretical and experiential knowledge about productions systems, as well as describe their basic characteristics in a useful, exact and comprehensive way for practitioners and software houses who want to have a knowledge base for further research and practical implementation in the wider field of production management, planning and scheduling.

The emerging curriculum for engineering

Abstract: There is a need for new engineering curricula in Technology/Management/Policy to complement existing programmes in engineering science. Although the traditional programmes were a great improvement over pre-1950s engineering education, they fail to incorporate the managerial and political aspects central to the design of important engineering systems. The engineering science curricula thus cannot prepare students to deal effectively with the full range of modern technological issues. Programmes combining technical education with preparation in management and policy will develop leaders who can comprehensively design the complex engineering systems increasingly central to our global economies. Strong programmes already exist at Carnegie-Mellon, the Technical University of Delft and MIT. The new MIT Engineering Systems Division bringing together some 30 faculty and 350 students shows how we can extend existing programmes. Its goal is to educate leaders for the strategic direction of technological systems. Its engineering curriculum has several distinguishing features: 1) many subjects in management and policy; 2) professional education, more similar to management than to science; 3) real-world experience through internships; 4) preparation for leadership.

Transparent insulation materials and products : A review

Abstract: After more than fifteen years of research and development on a new generation of transparent insulation materials in the more restricted sense, namely honeycomb type and other geometric structures, granular and monolithic aerogel, an overview of existing materials and products is presented. During the last few years considerable progress has been made in the field of marketable products, whereas the first decade was dedicated to the development of materials, and the theoretical understanding of the physical properties. On the other hand there still exist optimization possibilities when one looks at the application aspect, e.g. temperature stability, inflammability, optical appearance, irregularities of the structures, and production costs. The development objectives in the past have been either to physically optimize a product for an application, or to produce a lower performance, cheaper product. An example of the first strategy is the development of high-quality glazings including glass tube structures. These structures are very regular and exhibit an excellent esthetical appearance in combination with more practical advantages, e.g. no water absorption. Of course, production, handling and weight make it difficult to meet the target of low costs. As an example on the other side the development of the transparent exterior finish system (TEIFS) had the main target of lowering costs. A reduction in transmittance and therefore efficiency is accepted readily. A series of products developed along this line seem to be accepted by the market more easily. It should be emphasised, that material costs are not the key issue, but system costs. A continous and intensive collaboration between production engineer, system or design engineer, scientist and salesman is probably the only chance to meet the requirements of high quality products, adapted to the application, with reasonable costs. An engineer designing an application with transparent insulation materials without understanding the physics of the material type used may run the risk of deteriorating the performance severely.

Integrating capacity simulation into process planning

Abstract: Process planning in the automotive industry is referred to as advance manufacturing engineering, because it is done in advance of production-before the facilities are created. When developing these processes, simulation is typically done by service groups, not the process planner, resulting in communication errors and unnecessary iterations. Software applications are now becoming available that not only simulate the production throughput objective of process planning, but other planning considerations such as process capability, material flow, ergonomics, and interferences. The impact of these simulation tools is put into perspective when considering the powertrain manufacturing engineering environment: process development time in years, cycle time accuracy in seconds, cost of the facility in hundreds of millions, and expected duration of the process in years. That is, a single expensive opportunity to implement a long-term investment, with verification done by "simulation" experts not intimately involved with the process. The future of simulation for me seems obvious!.

Laser Cutting Machine: Justification of initial costs

Abstract: The Industrial Laser is firmly established in metalcutting as the tool of choice for many applications. The elevator division of Montgomery KONE Inc., in an effort to move towards quality, ontime, complete deliveries and 100% customer satisfaction, decided to invest in new equipment to improve manufacturing processes. A huge investment is proposed for a laser-cutting machine. It is the responsibility of Manufacturing Engineering to direct the management by justifying its benefits, which includes payback time and financial gains. Factors such as common line cutting, automated material handling system and cutting time were involved in justification of the initial cost of a laser-cutting machine. Comparative statistics on appropriate factors accurately determine and justify the initial cost of a laser-cutting machine.

Considerations in radar system engineering

Abstract: The nature of systems is discussed, using a framework of estimation, decision and action spaces to address overall behavior. The process of relating operational requirements to the specifications that govern actual development ("functional allocation", key to system engineering) and some tools useful in that process are discussed. The inseparability of engineering and management in major development is claimed; some management control tools are discussed and shown to be vital engineering tools as well. Finally, increased attention to system engineering techniques and experiences in the engineering discourse in our community is encouraged.

The European IST ExPlanTech project

Abstract: Hands-on adoption of a multi-agent production planning technology in the manufacturing industry.

Challenges in Dealing with Human Factors Issues in Manufacturing Activities

Abstract: To whatever extent manufacturing facilities are automated, they still need humans with supreme authority over production management even in the new century As sophistication in manufacturing systems increases, however, renewed operational and organizational issues have arisen associated with human resource management This paper intends to give an overview of current topics and/or issues regarding the relationship between humans and machines in modernized manufacturing systems, and to provide a general idea on the challenges undertaken in an international joint research project developed under the IMS program for addressing human factors issues, based on a re-recognition of the significance of human roles in manufacturing activities

Distributed Management and Interchange of Information in Virtual Engineering Enterprises Using the Systemic Methodology PSM

Abstract: Due to the massive change of information in the engineering area companies, they are forced to corporate with each other and built virtual engineering enterprises. Our attention is focused on how the companies would like to access the various information in these virtual enterprises. The product quality and manufacturing excellence are no longer enough to compete and dominate in world engineering. The major challenges concerning information management in the engineering sectors can be characterized as follows: With the adoption of new technologies, materials and production processes, the overall volume and diversity of engineering information is increasing rapidly. The complexity of engineering information, product processes, and products is constantly increasing. Moreover, the processes may involve several companies in continuous exchange of various kinds of data (CAD models, specifications, documents). A significant obstacle blocks the emergence and effective use of engineering information and services in a virtual enterprise and that is the inefficient, imprecise and unsecured access to information such as product/component specifications, data sheets, CAD models, documentation and company profiles, or services such as simulation or calculation programs. In this paper the systemic methodology PSM is used to design and describe the Global Engineering Network — GEN — that was created by a group of European enterprises and organizations in order to structure the system for distributed management and interchange of information. Starting from requirements for information management in virtual engineering enterprises we analyze and model the functions of the Global Engineering Network.

Industrial Engineering and Its Application

Abstract: The paper introduces the basic idea, special characteristic and function of industrial engineering and discusses its research contents and scope. Meanwhile, it reviews its application, and points out that the integration and fusion of advanced manufacturing technology with various production modes are the inevitable tendency of modern industrial engineering.