Production engineering

About: Production engineering is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 2657 publications have been published within this topic receiving 37409 citations.

Developing a production management modelling approach for precast concrete building products

Abstract: Production management in this research is concerned with three key decisions: demand forecast, production scheduling and stock forecast. These three decisions are very much interrelated and cannot be made in isolation. Previous studies of precast concrete industry activities concluded that production management is fragmented. For example, production planning is done in isolation from demand forecasting and from stock forecasting. This has contributed to poor production management performance in terms of resource utilization and over-stocking. This paper goes beyond traditional production management theories and practices and develops a model to integrate all aspects of production management. The main objective is to develop an integrated production management model for the make-to-stock sector of precast concrete building products, in order to help production managers make better planning decisions and explore alternative options. The model is a factory simulator which examines and evaluates the effect of...

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.

A concurrent engineering approach to selective implementation of alternative processes

Abstract: During the last decade, integration between design and manufacturing has shown to be a major competitive weapon and much research work has been carried out about considering at the product design stage production process issues. Most of the literature on such techniques focuses on integrating the design of a product and the design of its manufacturing processes, disregarding issues related to the design and management of the manufacturing system. Nonetheless, decisions taken at the product and process design stage could have an influence on typical production planning and control issues such as, for example, minimising lead times and maximising machine utilisation. Many research works show the advantage of a higher process flexibility, in terms of machine utilisation, manufacturing lead time, inventory level, and the like (see, for example, Tsubone and Horikawa, The International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems 11 (1999) 83 or Ferreira and Wysk, Journal of Manufacturing System 19 (2001)), but developing alternative machine possibility has a cost that is not negligible (International Journal of Production Economics 48 (1997) 237). Therefore, guidelines are needed for identifying for what items and for which operations to develop alternative processes. In this paper, the relationship between alternative processes availability and manufacturing system performances are investigated, showing that the advantage of additional alternative process decreases as the number of alternatives increases, and that given a certain number of alternative processes developed, there is a strong difference in performances depending on what alternative processes have been implemented. Then a new procedure is presented for guiding in selecting for which operations to implement alternative processes in order to maximise the flexibility advantages limiting the implementation cost. The proposed procedure is then tested, under different operating conditions, against a practical rule by means of a simulation model.

Development of a Curriculum for Service Systems Engineering Using a Delphi Technique

Abstract: The U.S. economy has gradually changed from one based in agriculture, to one focused on manufacturing, to one now that relies heavily on the service sector. The service sector, including governmental agencies, retail stores, the entertainment business, public utilities, and providers of similar services, now makes up more than 80% of the total U.S. economy. Engineering programs, which typically have their roots in the era of manufacturing, have a focus on the design and fabrication of “products” rather than the design and creation of service systems. While curricula such as engineering management and industrial engineering provide some support to service systems engineering, their legacies are tied to the manufacturing sector, and as a result, they are not optimized to support the service sector. With this in mind, a Delphi Study was performed to identify the features, characteristics, and topics relevant to a service systems engineering curriculum. This paper describes the planning, conduct, and results of the service systems engineering Delphi Study and how this information is being used to establish a new degree program.