Research Topics: Manufacturing Automation

Manufacturing Automation: Examples and Applications

Introduction             During the past, production and manufacturing are all done manually. It causes different factories as well as workers to undergo several pain-staking processes. In order to improve the speed, the quality and the efficiency of their process, human beings, began to use different tools and machineries (Asai & Takashima 1994, p. 3).             Technology is considered as one of the most important factors that are needed by different companies and organization in order to gain their competitive advantage. Technology is now an influential factor for the future of all the companies and organization in the world (Madu 1993, p. 104). Technology will be useless without the proper strategies that can be used in order to get the full benefits of the technology for the company.             Later on, automation as well as computers has also been introduced in order to use into different production and manufacturing process; it was considered as related to the social and economic trends (Asai & Takashima 1994, p. 3).Automation or the use and practice of different automatic operations as well as control of different equipment are important factor in overall operation of a company or organization. Automation as well as the operations systems that are independent direct to the human action are two most important factors that can help the companies to gain intangible benefits that cannot be measured by any conventional justification (Madu 1993, p. 104).             Technologies do not last forever because it follows their certain cycles. Therefore, developing technologies can be characterized as those that are capable of modifying competitive posture. Once those technologies become the key technologies, those companies that are controlling them can acquire their competitive advantage. Another thing is that, as the key technologies become more mature, they become the basic technologies. The life cycle of a certain technology, more specifically the different phases: introduction, growth and maturity; are not basically bound to the technology itself but mirror the use of them by its manufacturers. All of the said reasons cause automation to become the key tool that is used in automobile and electronics assemblies and now up-and-coming in job-shop environments as well as in incessant oil and sugar refineries (Madu 1993, p. 105).             Flexible manufacturing system, together with other information-based technologies can help save time, money and effort because it uses the process of activity integration. Integration, on the other hand can improve system’s performance by reducing those redundant activities and tasks. Automation is needed in order to meet the intangible benefits of the customer’s perception of the quality improvement as well as the process of integration (cited in Madu 1993, p. 104).             In general, although technology is an important aspect in any business operation, it is not enough in order get the full benefits of the technology itself. The different strategies on how and when to use technology are also important. The needs of the customer as well as the need of the employees are also important matter. Manufacturing Automation             Global manufacturing industries are now going through a speedy structural change. The process industry will come across different obscurity and complexity as the said change continues and as it faces up to a change and a larger and competitive marketplace. Competitive strategies are important in order to maintain the industrial base as well as the high living standard of a certain company or organization (Rao & Qiu 1993, p. 352). Manufacturing automation is a process that helps to meet the objectives of increase in the flexibility, decrease cost as well as improvement in quality. Manufacturing automation can also be considered as a strategy that can be used in order to reduce different uncertainties that can affect the overall operation and eventually the performance of the organization (Madu 1993, p. 106).             There are different applications of automation in the process of manufacturing: ü      Automated guided vehicles, conveyors and other automated material that are used in different handling systems (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4); ü      Automated storage-retrieval systems (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4); ü      Automated assembly machines (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4); ü      Computer numerical control (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4); ü      Industrial robots (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4); ü      Process control using computers or programmable logic controllers (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4); and ü      Transfer lines (Dorf & Kusiak 1994, p. 4). Process in Manufacturing Automation             There are three major steps that are followed in practicing the process of manufacturing automation which are: the decision-making process; implementation; and the control for the manufacturing automation. Figure 1 shows the different steps that are encountered during the process of manufacturing automation. The first step, which is the decision-making, is done by defining and stating the precise or exact objective with respect to the manufacturing automation. The said objectives must be achievable and compatible with the overall goal of the organization, as well as realistic. It will be prepared by those members of the organization that will be affected by the process of manufacturing automation or those participants who are called as active member (Madu 1993, p. 106).              The next step is the idea generation. This is the stage where in the participants will generate their alternatives about how the manufacturing objectives can be achieved, in independent manner. The main significance of this step or phase is to connect the importance of the objectives to the total improvement of performance of the company or organization (Madu 1993, p. 106). The process of identifying the different factors that might affect the overall implementation of the manufacturing automation is also prepared in the said stage. After that, all of the gathered and identified factors will be used in order to analyze the overall situation of the system. It can help the decision maker to see the different cognitive conflict (Madu 1993, p. 109).             The final step will handle the process of continuous review and appraisal of the entire process. It can also be considered as the maintaining step that will handle all the different standards that can be used in order to evaluate how well the objectives have been satisfied. In this step or phase, the level of automation that had been implemented may be upgraded in order to accommodate the changing manufacturing needs of the organization as a whole, together with its goals and its objectives (Madu 1993, p. 109).                             Figure 1 The Manufacturing Automation Process Adapted from (Madu 1993, p. 107) Example of Application of Manufacturing Automation Metal Cutting and Computer Numerically Controlled Metal cutting is one of the most extensively used manufacturing processes in producing the final shape of products. Its technology is continuing to advance together with the development and improvement in different materials, computers as well as sensors. A blank can be converted in to a final and usable product by cutting other extra material by the different process of turning, drilling, milling, broaching, boring and grinding (Atlintas 2000, p. ix). The process of metal cutting has been done before using the manual type of process, from the turning up to grinding, but due to the development of different technologies as well as computers, manufacturing automation has been used in order to improve the efficiency and the speed of doing the said process. Due to the process of manufacturing automation, the CNC or the Computer Numerically Controlled machine tools (Atlintas 2000, p. ix). There are also other technologies that are used in metal cutting: the computer-aided manufacturing or CAM; and the sensor-assisted intelligent machining (Atlintas 2000, p. 1). There are different processes that must be applied in order to achieve the final shape of the different mechanical parts. The first processes are considered as bulk deformation process like forging, rolling and casting. This will be followed by different series of metal removing operations that can help to reach the desired shapes, dimensions and the surface finish quality of a specific part (Atlintas 2000, p. 4).               NC or numerical control has been used by different companies and factories in order to help solve different mathematical problem. The numerical control machine is now used to do the metal cutting process. It is a machine that is positioned automatically along a pre-programmed path by the use of different coded instructions (Seames 2001, p. 1). Those machines are all programmed to do the different stages that are involved in doing the metal cutting. It can direct an automatic tool-changer to replace a cutting tool in order to prepare it for the next operation. There are also different instructions that are included in the machine in order to trigger the operation of the robot in order for it to load as well as unload the work piece and eventually signal to the cell controller the successful completion of the operation, the current condition of the cutting tool, the time that the tool have been elapsed as well as the host of different data that can be used in order to process the function of the cell.  Automotive Industry and Automated Assembly Machines             Automated assembly machines together with the transfer lines are all interrelated groups of different machines that are dedicated in manufacturing of high-volume assembly of different production parts. The said equipment are used mainly for automotive industry.                       Figure 2 Framework of Automated Assembly Machine Adapted from (Veilleux & Petro 1996, p. 10)             This is use in the automotive application by implementing a 98-station synchronous system assembles with any of the 64 pump configurations that consists of maximum of 37 different components, using the rate of 1000 assemblies per hour. The main use of the pumps is to sustain the automotive hydraulic steering units. The assembly system, on the other hand, has its two most important lines as well as two auxiliary off-line dial machines, together with all of the four different components that are prepared with chain-driven workholding pallets. In order to support all of the said process, a data code entry system is applied in order to program the system for different pump configuration (Cubberly & Bakerjian 1989, p. 44).             All of the said systems had been characterized by different fixed tooling as well as different hard-wired controls. It can provide different companies to maintain the level of maximum machine utilization and eventually minimum direct labor. However, the said systems offer a limited numbers of different products handling (Veilleux & Petro 1996, p. 10). Appropriate Application of Manufacturing Automation             Application of automation in any manufacturing activities can help different companies and organization to improve their overall performance by making the life of the workers a lot easier. There are many things that might be considered in order to know if the applied manufacturing automation is working or if the applied system is enough to handle the overall performance of the company.             The reason for the use of automation in the system is to assists the humans in order for them to deal with the complexity of work, thus relieving them from experiencing the burden of monotonous works. The amount of the automation application can be said as appropriate if it can handle different task that can be considered as painstaking as well as dangerous for a human to do. If different automation applications are not doing their job properly, more often than not, it will be more painstaking than application of manual force, because it can inflict or oblige extensive mental workload to the human operator (Parasuraman & Mouloua 1996, p. 92). In general, you can say that the application of manufacturing automation is enough if it can give satisfaction to the uses and eventually lessen the effects or negative impact of human error.             Automation can also be considered as enough or appropriate if it can help to improve the overall production of the company. If it can maintain the maximum level of its speed, reliability and consistency, then it can be considered as enough to handle the overall performance of the company.             Another thing is that the application of automation has a space for interaction or communication to human. Although, the said technology can help to prevent human-cause errors, human interactions or efforts are still important in order to know if the machines are doing their job base on the overall objectives of the company.   Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Manufacturing Automation: Examples and Applications

Introduction During the past, production and manufacturing are all done manually. It causes different factories as well as w...