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2007 | Book

An Effective Approach for Distributed Process Planning Enabled by Event-driven Function Blocks Read chapter Read first chapter

Process Planning and Scheduling for Distributed Manufacturing

Editors: Lihui Wang, PhD, PEng, Weiming Shen, PhD, PEng

Publisher: Springer London

Book Series : Springer Series in Advanced Manufacturing

Part of: Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" , Springer Professional "Technik" , Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

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About this book

Manufacturing has been one of the key areas that support and influence a nation’s economy since the 18th century. Being the primary driving force in economic growth, manufacturing constantly serves as the foundation of and contributes to other industries with products ranging from heavy-duty machinery to hi-tech home electronics. In the past centuries, manufacturing has contributed significantly to modern civilisation and created momentum that is used to drive today’s economy. Despite various revolutionary changes and innovations in the 20th century that contributed to manufacturing advancements, we are still facing new challenges when striving to achieve greater success in winning global competitions. Today, distributed manufacturing is unforeseeably coming into being due to recent business decentralisation and manufacturing outsourcing. Manufacturers are competing in a dynamic marketplace that demands short response time to changing markets and agility in production. In the 21st century, manufacturing is gradually shifting to a distributed environment with increasing dynamism. In order to win a competition, locally or globally, customer satisfaction is treated with priority. This leads to mass customisation and even more complex manufacturing processes, from shop floors to every level along manufacturing supply chains. At the same time, outsourcing has forged a multi-tier supplier structure with numerous small-- medium-sized enterprises involved, where highly-mixed products in small batch sizes are handled simultaneously in job-shop operations.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter
1. An Effective Approach for Distributed Process Planning Enabled by Event-driven Function Blocks
Abstract
This chapter presents a function block enabled approach towards distributed process planning. It covers the basic concept, generic machining process sequencing using enriched machining features, process plan encapsulation in function blocks, and process monitoring through event-driven function blocks. A two-layer structure of supervisory planning and operation planning is proposed to separate generic data from machine-specific ones. The supervisory planning is only performed once, in advance, at the shop level to generate machine-neutral process plans, whereas the operation planning is carried out at runtime at the machine level to determine machine-specific operations. This dynamic decision making is facilitated by resource-driven algorithms embedded in the function blocks. The internal structures of typical function blocks are also introduced in the chapter. Our approach and algorithms are verified through case studies before drawing conclusions. It is expected that the new approach can greatly enhance the dynamism of fluctuating job-shop operations.
Lihui Wang, Hsi-Yung Feng, Ningxu Cai, Wei Jin
2. Web-based Polishing Process Planning Using Data-mining Techniques
Abstract
A Web-based portal system (WBPS) is developed to implement process planning that aims to streamline polishing products and processes. This Web application system mixes its functions of providing intelligent decision support to polishing enterprises by facilitating the sharing of vast collective polishing knowledge, as well as addressing the hindrance problem of subjective human determination of knowledge discovery using data-mining techniques. WBPS will create an important knowledge base for parameter optimisation using fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms through laboratory experiments and field studies within collaborating companies. Another aim of developing WBPS is to cope with the vast collective polishing knowledge, information sharing across the companies and applicable case initialisation. Functionality of WBKP will be explained with provision of online interfaces, access integration to polishing expertise and values, and application embedment to serve as self-documenting activities.
V. Y. M. Tsang, B. K. K. Ngai, G. Q. Huang, V. H. Y. Lo, K. C. Cheng
3. Integration of Rule-based Process Selection with Virtual Machining for Distributed Manufacturing Planning
Abstract
Efficient utilisation of both design geometry information and process information is at the heart of modern CAPP systems. The need to consider them both in development and implementation of process planning algorithms and optimisation is the focus of this chapter. The chapter describes a framework for integration of process information in the form of rulebased process selection with geometry data in the form of virtual machining. A rule-based process selection module considers the part geometry and tolerances, and identifies a set of machining processes, tools, and/or machines needed to produce the feature with the required quality. Each selected process candidate is sent to a virtual machining module, which uses the process data and part geometry to generate a virtual machining model and simulates the process in a virtual 3D world enabling the users to verify the process parameters, identify any undesired part/tool collisions, and create an intermediate workpiece geometry required for fixture design. The virtual machining model also enables ranking of alternative candidates for the same feature and verification of the sequence of processes required for a single feature. Procedures and algorithms for both process selection and virtual machining and approaches for their integration are demonstrated on several complex mechanical parts.
Dusan N. Sormaz, Jaikumar Arumugam, Chandrasekhar Ganduri
4. CyberCut: A Coordinated Pipeline of Design, Process Planning and Manufacture
Abstract
CyberCut is a coordinated “pipeline” of software that can be used to design a part itself, design a mould for the part, and then machine an aluminium mould from the design. WebCAD is the “front end” to CyberCut and invites a mechanical designer to use specific design tools, strongly linked to downstream manufacture. Alternatively, we also allow the designer to use a CAD system of their choice and use the “feature recognition” described in this chapter to analyse the shape for downstream planning and machining. An ACIS graphics kernel facilitates the feature recognition step from the CAD file. Automated tool-path planners and automated tool selection procedures then generate computer numerical controlled (CNC) machining code. The algorithms that we have developed eliminate manual CNC programming, thus reducing significantly the mould cutting time. We also describe an optimal tool sequencing method by finding the shortest path in a single-source, single-sink, directed acyclic graph.
V. Sundararajan, Paul Wright
5. Process Planning, Scheduling and Control for One-of-a-Kind Production
Abstract
This chapter describes a framework for computer-aided process planning, scheduling and control for flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) producing One-of-a-Kind Products (OKP). This constitutes a form of mass customisation (MC) using one-piece flow (mass production) to produce variations on a number of different kinds of products (customisation). The basic concept is to produce customised forms of a standard product in the same time and for the same cost as the standard product. There is a need to capture customer requirements that specify the variation of the standard product easily, quickly and accurately. Also, there is a need to be able to respond to changing demands in the market for new variations and options for standard products. This chapter includes a case study of a company that produces a significant number of products daily that require the use of computer-aided engineering software systems and CNC (computer numerical control) equipment. The planning and control of these FMS are complicated because of the non-standard nature of the products.
Paul Dean, Yiliu Tu, Deyi Xue
6. Setup Planning and Tolerance Analysis
Abstract
A computer-aided manufacturing planning (CAMP) system is introduced in this chapter. When product design information is identified, a production plan can be rapidly generated with comparison of alternatives. It is based on the concept of production and process similarity and the best-practice knowledge in the automotive industry. Therefore, it is the intention that the system is applied in the mass-customisation environment, i.e. achieving a mass-production economic goal with the flexibility of product design changes. It is a CAD integrated system with defining bill of process in three levels: feature, part, and machine levels. A tolerance-analysis-based automated setup planning strategy is developed to generate new production plans. The system is validated by several production cases.
Yiming Kevin Rong
7. Scheduling in Holonic Manufacturing Systems
Abstract
This chapter presents some of the issues concerning holonic manufacturing systems. It starts by presenting the current manufacturing scenario and trends and then provides some background information on the holonic concept and its application to manufacturing. The current limitations and future trends of manufacturing suggest more autonomous and distributed organisations for manufacturing systems; holonic manufacturing systems are proposed as a way to achieve such autonomy and decentralisation. After a brief literature survey, a specific research study is presented to handle scheduling in holonic manufacturing systems. This work is based on task and resource holons that cooperate with each other based on a variant of the contract net protocol that allow the propagation of constraints between operations in the execution plan. The chapter ends by presenting some challenges and future opportunities for research.
Paulo Sousa, Carlos Ramos, José Neves
8. Agent-based Dynamic Scheduling for Distributed Manufacturing
Abstract
Manufacturing enterprises are facing great challenges to improve their production efficiency and profitability in order to survive in a globally competitive market. Agent-based manufacturing scheduling technology provides a promising way to address these challenges. This technology can well address both dynamic changes and unpredictable disturbances in the manufacturing shop floor locally without disruptions to regular production — a problem that cannot be solved by traditional centralised planning and scheduling systems. It can significantly improve equipment-utilisation rates, thereby improving the efficiency and productivity of manufacturing enterprises. This chapter provides a brief research literature review on agent-based distributed manufacturing scheduling, presents some of our recent R&D results in this area, and discusses key issues in deploying this technology in industry.
Weiming Shen, Qi Hao
9. A Multi-agent System Implementation of an Evolutionary Approach to Production Scheduling
Abstract
In this chapter we describe a multi-agent systems (MAS) approach to manufacturing job-shop scheduling that evolves the rules by which schedules are created rather than the schedule itself. The system is tested using a benchmark agent-based scheduling problem and performance results are compared with pure heuristic scheduling heuristics and randomly generated mixed heuristics.
Scott S. Walker, Douglas H. Norrie, Robert W. Brennan
10. Distributed Scheduling in Multiple-factory Production with Machine Maintenance
Abstract
In general, the distributed scheduling problem focuses on solving two issues simultaneously: (i) allocation of jobs to suitable factories, and (ii) determination of the corresponding production scheduling in each factory. Its objective is to maximise the system efficiency by finding an optimal plan for a better collaboration among various processes. This makes the distributed scheduling problem more complicated than the classical production scheduling ones. With the addition of alternative production routing, the problems are even more complicated. Conventionally, machines are assumed to be available without interruption during the production scheduling. Maintenance is usually not considered. However, in reality, this assumption is not true in most cases. Maintenance policy always directly affects the machine availability. Consequently, it interrupts the production. In this connection, maintenance should be considered with the distributed scheduling problems. In this chapter, a genetic algorithm with dominant genes (GADG) approach is introduced to deal with this problem. The significance and benefits of considering maintenance are demonstrated by simulation runs in an example.
Felix Tung Sun Chan, Sai Ho Chung
11. Resource Scheduling for a Virtual CIM System
Abstract
The present global market, which is highly competitive, demands high-quality products, reduced cost and shorter delivery times. In order to lead the market, as a minimum requirement, manufacturers should have a capability to satisfy these global demands and be proactive. Globally distributed enterprises can gain leverage in leading the market due to their potential to utilise the distributed resources, and the capability to have collaborative expertise to meet and satisfy the diverse customer requirements. In addition, optimal utilisation of globally distributed resources is a necessity for success in globally distributed business enterprises. With the developments taking place in computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) and its related technologies, CIM can be further expanded as a globally distributed CIM to overcome the above issues. A network of interconnected CIM systems, which are globally distributed, is regarded as a virtual CIM (VCIM) in this chapter. The VCIM concept was proposed as a solution to satisfy the emerging technological application of virtual enterprises. This chapter focuses on the issues that need to be addressed when resource scheduling is considered for collaborating enterprises that have adopted the VCIM system and it provides a simple approach for resource scheduling with the use of an agent-based architecture.
Sev Nagalingam, Grier Lin, Dongsheng Wang
12. A Unified Model-based Integration of Process Planning and Scheduling
Abstract
To increase the flexibility and responsiveness of a job shop in the more competitive market, process planning and scheduling systems have been actively developed and deployed. It is ideal to integrate the two systems more tightly to achieve the global optimisation of product development and manufacturing. In this chapter, a unified representation model and a simulated annealing-based approach have been developed to facilitate the integration and optimisation process. Three methods, namely, processing flexibility, operation sequencing flexibility and scheduling flexibility, have been used to effectively explore the vast search space to support the optimisation approach. Performance criteria, including makespan, the balanced level of machine utilisation, job tardiness and manufacturing cost, have been defined in the optimisation approach to address the various practical requirements. Case studies under different working conditions have been conducted to show the merits and characteristics of the developed approaches.
Weidong Li, S. K. Ong, A. Y. C. Nee
13. A Study on Integrated Process Planning and Scheduling System for Holonic Manufacturing
Abstract
New architectures of manufacturing systems have been proposed aiming at realising more flexible control structures of manufacturing systems, which can cope with dynamic changes in volume and variety of products, and also with unscheduled disruptions. The objective of the research is to develop an integrated process planning and scheduling system, which is applicable to the holonic manufacturing systems (HMS). A basic architecture for the HMS is proposed to determine both suitable sequences of the machining equipment needed to manufacture the products and suitable production schedules for the machining equipment. In particular, procedures are developed to generate suitable production schedules and to modify the process plans based on the scheduling results.
Nobuhiro Sugimura, Rajesh Shrestha, Yoshitaka Tanimizu, Koji Iwamura
14. Managing Dynamic Demand Events in Semiconductor Manufacturing Chains by Optimal Control Modelling
Abstract
This chapter describes a new planning method for proactively responding to dynamic events that pose a threat to degenerate the supply services of manufacturing chains. A dynamic system model for manufacturing chains under exogenous demand shocks is first described. As the impact of dynamic events is most severe when manufacturing chains are in the full-load state, a procedure is next presented for constructing full-load production functions of flexible capacity. The third part of this chapter develops an optimal control model for integrating the production functions of multiple production units. Given a nonordinary event of demand shock, this method can be used to determine if the shock can be absorbed by the manufacturing chains, without degrading its fulfilment services. The background of this chapter is the semiconductor manufacturing industry. Demand shock in the distribution channel of microchip products is described and characteristics of semiconductor manufacturing are incorporated in modelling and method development. Numerical examples are given to demonstrate the working of the method.
Yon-Chun Chou
15. A Parameter-perturbation Approach to Replanning Operations
Abstract
In this chapter, we present operational and planning models for manufacturing systems. These models are developed to show the operational fidelity of the models to various manufacturing processes. The models are initially used to plan production activities for a variety of products that will be semi-automatically manufactured. The same models are then used to show how optimal operational conditions can be developed for a variety of processes (minimum time and cost). The models are then extended to show how the operating conditions can be perturbed so that optimal short-term planning models can be developed.
The approach is illustrated using a family of product family models developed at Penn State University. The Factory for Advanced Manufacturing Engineering (FAME) at Penn State, a sophisticated manufacturing system is used to produce the products in volume, as would be the case for many commercial products.
Nazrul I. Shaikh, Michael Masin, Richard A. Wysk
16. STEP into Distributed Manufacturing with STEP-NC
Abstract
As the technological information of enterprises becomes more and more distributed, continuous data acquisition in decentralised computer numerical control (CNC) machine tools and databases is necessary for a distributed manufacturing system. This chapter focuses on an emerging ISO standard, informally known as STEP-NC, and the role it plays in closing the gap between design and manufacturing for a distributed and collaborative manufacturing environment. This new standard defines a new generation of NC programming language and is fully compliant with STEP. STEP-NC brings richer information to the CNC machine tools, hence intelligent machining and control are made possible. Its Web-enabled feature gives itself an additional dimension in that distributed manufacturing can be readily supported. A case study toward the end demonstrates such a system. The system adopts a three-tiered, Internet-based network architecture, so that designing and manufacturing data can be exchanged over the Internet. A STEP-NC adapter has been developed to convert generic manufacturing information (at the task level) into native manufacturing information (at the method level) for a chosen machine tool. A native CNC system database has been developed to capture the conditions and capabilities of a machine tool and cutting tool. This database is the foundation of the whole system since it contains all the native information about a specific CNC machine.
Xun Xu
Backmatter
Metadata
Title
Process Planning and Scheduling for Distributed Manufacturing
Editors
Lihui Wang, PhD, PEng
Weiming Shen, PhD, PEng
Copyright Year
2007
Publisher
Springer London
Electronic ISBN
978-1-84628-752-7
Print ISBN
978-1-84628-751-0
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-752-7

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