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Risultati finali
The system provides a whole set of application (software tool) able to design and to simulate a modular factory environment. It's composed, in fact, by a VRE (Virtual Reality Environment), a SFL (Standard Facility Library) and Emulation/Control system.
Through the VRE the user can design both the factory as well the production layout in a 3D immersive environment and in a easily and simple way. The all factory modules are stored in the SFL, an object oriented database that is able to produce a XML file containing the whole description of the "just-design" factory. Through this file the emulation model is semi-automatically produced and an agent-based control runs the simulation. The data can finally analysed by the user and the plant can be improved in the virtual Environment. Actually the VRE is the only software running on a SGI workstation (the whole system runs on personal computer), but it foresees to create a desktop application for the 3D immersive interaction after the end of the project.
The target of the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) -Project was, to develop a method to realise a machinery and equipment implementation to be prepared for dynamic changes in production- programmes and volumes.
Parts of activities of GIP Gewerbe- und Industriepartner are to consult companies at project development, turnkey realisation of industrial and commercial constructions and production activities. The result of Modular Plant Architecture (MPA) is the development of a concept for modularised buildings and a toolkit to consult producing companies when planning industrial buildings or complete factories.
The developed modular toolkit should be adjust by specific needs of individual customers. So the development and planning costs and realization-time of individual projects can be reduced. This way the customer relationship can be increased and the already existing delimitation to competitors in market segment industrial and commercial real estates becomes reinforced. An increase in market shares including related increases in turnover are expected.
Picanol is a manufacturer of production systems and services to the textile industry. The demand in the market of textile machines fluctuates very much. The machines are also subject to constant design changes. This demands great flexibility from the production sites.
The focus for the MPA-project (Modular Plant Architecture) is to obtain an organisation that is more flexible, both towards volume- and product changes. In workpackage 1, Picanol tries to find an optimal segmentation for changing, small series production. Workpackage 2 developes a scheduling and simulating tool to optimise the workflow within these segments.
Once this concept is developed and in use in our own manufacturing departments, it can be adapted for our customers to optimise their textile company.
At this moment we are integrating some machining centers into a module we developed with the MPA-methodology. We are in the fase of the fine planning and should go alive mid 2004.
This result is a new machine learning approach developed by SZTAKI that may be generally applied in the control software of the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) Software Tool. Applying reinforcement learning, the new approach improves the decision-making in the control software. A two level adaptation method is proposed to solve the scheduling problem in a dynamically changing and uncertain environment. It is applied to the heterarchical multi agent architecture of the MPA controller, which was inspired by food forging ants. The applicability and the effectiveness of the proposed method are illustrated by the results of experimental runs.
Within the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) project a training case for teaching the fundamentals of MPA and the method application to professionals from industry as well as to engineering students was developed.
The training case is designed in two sub modules with the objective to carry it out either in two 1/2-day or one 1-day seminar.
Within the training course, presentations regarding the methodological fundamentals of MPA and the practical method application as well as participative exercises for understanding and developing Modular Plant Architectures are carried out. The practical method application in participative exercises form the biggest block of the course. They cover the main contents of results developed in the MPA project.
In detail, the objective of the training course is to teach its participants how to develop and deploy modular production structures by the following examplary targets: How to enable volume scalable and product flexible production equipment? How to standardize reusable production equipment for different environmental requirements such as varying automation degree, varying local requirements in global production networks etc.
The focus chosen for the training course is the design of production segments, production lines and single machines in medium to large series production.
The target of the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) -Project was, to develop a method to realise a machinery and equipment implementation to be prepared for dynamic changes in production- programmes and volumes.
RBET's focussed object of the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) approach and development was a Production Line (Starter armature production line). This line is a typical example because of its high variety and medium of high complexity.
In workpackage number 1 RBET Analysed strategy and objectives for modularisation and elaborated a modular line structure in the reference line of starter armatures (Reference Architecture, Platforms and Modules construction). In order to implement the mentioned modular structure all the constructive changes required were Identified and partly realised. At this stage RBET developed a method for changes in production modules evaluation and Elaborated a concept for controlling and continuous adaptation of modular plant architecture.
In workpackage number 3 RBET chose a production line restructuring as a real case study to carry out the MPA pilot project. The production line selected was the starter pinions line because of its high potential of complexity reduction as one of the standardised works for the Bosch Production System.
RBET intention, employing MPA methodology for the restructuring, was to validate the development tool proofing the utility of the workpackage number 1 approach.
The main results obtained with the Pinions line restructuring are:
53% line space reduction, 55% machines reduction (owing to the operators utilisation grade increase) and 33% operators required reduction (owing to the layout optimisation).
RBET is a Cost Center of the Energy System Division of Bosch. RBET is one of the leading plants in Europe for supplying Starter Motors and Alternator for almost every car company in the world. The company produces with 1300 employees over 5 Mio. products every year on highly automated production lines. The principle goal of RBET is to serve the customer world-wide with top quality.
Since the environment in its markets is increasingly competitive, RBET needs to cut costs constantly down. An important factor of cost is the investment. As the market asks for innovation, the product cycles decrease, but RBET cannot afford to reinvest 100 % for a new product.
The main MPA objective at RBET is to get a new concept of production, which allows:
- To renew parts of production in case of usage new technologies or machine with higher productivity but not to renew the hole line.
- To renew parts of the production for the new products and combine those with new equipment.
- To be flexible to install production lines adapted to the demand of a local market and the cost of labour with different grade of automation but standardised key processes
- To install in different parts of the world production equipment of key processes which is standardised and of proven quality.
The MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) -Methodology systematically supports the design of modular production systems and architectures to improve production industries changeability. In order to support its broad dissemination and industry application, the following activities have been planned or are already taken:
Integration of scientific and methodological results into students education in order to bring European higher education in production management and engineering to new levels of excellence. At current, MPA results have already been included in several regular lectures of WZL, RWTH Aachen addressing production engineering students.
In addition, it is also intended to include MPA-results in the lectures of European Executive Master Programme currently elaborated by several European universities in the EU-Project MABUSE.
The target of the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) -Project was, to develop a method to realise a machinery and equipment implementation to be prepared for dynamic changes in production- programmes and volumes.
Work done at Bosch:
- Analysis of strategy and objectives for modularisation (workstation level, part feeding);
- Elaboration of a modular part feeding system and kit (Mobiflex, modular kit);
- Generic Evaluation of modular part feeder system.
Results at Bosch:
- Bosch-specific Modules (Resource Box on workstation level);
- Standardised Production Modules for flexible part feeder systems in automotive assembly;
- Modular kit (Reference Architecture);
- Realisation of modular kit as a demonstrator (funded by Bosch);
- Quantitative and qualitative validation of methodology (comparison of alternative solutions with different degrees of modularity);
- Validation of potential of MPA methodology, improvement of industrial applicability of method.
Future activities planned:
- Exploitation of modular kit, e.g. industrial application of system in Bosch Automotive supplier plant;
- Internal dissemination of method (internal workshops at Bosch FV/PLF, Rexroth, publication in Bosch-magazine);
- Use of method in daily production engineering (including of method in Bosch Guidelines);
- Further improvements/ extensions of modular kit (additional modules);
- External dissemination: External Publication, patent applied for;
- External exploitation: Licensing of technology.
Behr Lorraine S.A.R.L. is a 100% daughter of the Behr GmbH & Co. and integrated in the Behr-Group as a Profit Centre. Behr Lorraine produces predominant Flat-tube Condensers for the automotive sector.
The target of the MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) -project was, to develop a method to realise a machinery and equipment implementation to be prepared for dynamic changes in production- programmes and volumes.
With the MPA Project results, BEHR clearly attend to increase the flexibility of its production machines towards the product (to be able to build different products on the same types of machines) and toward the production volume (according to the future customer orders). All the implementations should permanently take care that the gain of space on the production floor is a very important feature. the special areas should be reduced (in number and space) and split with different production lines in order to get general use for those areas (for example a central rework area for the factory instead of one area for each production line).
This best practice implementation layout will be used in the future to copy the Condenser production in Europe and world-wide.
BEHR wants the MPA project to increase the flexibility towards the product variants and towards the production technology and environment rules changes; using standardised modules with standardised factory controls.
But BEHR is also looking for some kind of optimisation in its goods logistic and in its production layout. To gain some competitiveness and to be faster than the competitors; BEHR wants also to reduce the time dedicated to the new plants planning process.
For BEHR, the efforts were concentrated on the production resources on two levels: the factory level and the production line level.
The different Change Drivers identified for BEHR - that is to say the main reasons, why the Production Means have to be changed or modified - are external as well as internal to the BEHR society. We have identified three fields for each category that influence the usual working within a BEHR plant. Concerning the external Change Drivers, the BEHR production system is influenced by Science and Technology, Society and Politics and by the Market Requirements. Concerning the internal Change Drivers, the BEHR production system is influenced by the Company Objectives; the Product Program and by the Product itself.
According to the new BEHR Spain plant project planning, the different Cost Drivers were identified and hierarchised.
The different headings used in the BEHR project planning could be considered more as budgetary headings and not really as planning phases. In fact, 93 % of the projects total costs were assigned to invest. The invests were mainly the technical equipment costs and the building costs. The invest for project planning was only the third cost source. To decrease efficiently the project costs, you should mainly act on these 2 first budgetary headings. Only 7 % of the projects total costs were dedicated to the planning costs (personal costs + means costs). The most expensive headings were the Plant Organisation Definition and the Production Element Definition.
A method to design Modular Plant Architecture was developed. Then the different Production Elements at BEHR were identified.
Each Production Element was specified in a Factory Boxes catalogue. A short description; some size parameters and the different influent Change Drivers of each Production Element were included in each catalogue page. The Production Elements were also defined and the production system was described as an object-oriented hierarchical model. Then the definition of all the possible Production Modules were listed and detailed in a Production Module Catalogue.
Afterwards, the Reference Architecture was determined. The deliverable for this task was a Modular Architecture and a Factory Design Process for Modular Architecture. The Modules types and their combinations were identified. The Modules integration and delimitation on the line level were defined. The requirements on necessary Modules on the factory level were identified. The Production Elements were linked to all the Design Process steps in a matrix. The Design Process was represented as object-oriented model.
The Harman/Becker GmbH is mainly a manufacturer of infotainment systems for the automobile industry. Infotainment systems are e.g. car stereos, amplifiers, speakers, navigation-systems a.s.o.
The company has production sites in Germany, South Africa, United Kingdom, France and Hungary. The first step of this project was to analyse the strategy and the objectives for the modularisation. The decision was made to analyse a cc/cd-radio (1DIN Chassis size) that is produced in Germany and South Africa and at a second scenario when a new radio generation (double DIN size chassis) has to be produced on the production line of the predecessor cc/cd-radio. We collected the change drivers (volume, single or double sided placement, chassis height,) and influences (market, company, customer, product, production,) and linked it to the production elements (automatic placement, hand mounting, testing, final assembly).
Then we defined the requirements for modularisation, what are production platforms (not influenced elements) and what are modules (influenced elements). All was done in the Production Structure Matrix. The next was to describe a standardized factory module. The single working steps and machines were analysed in detail and linked to the production layout. Details are investment, cycle time, availability, capacity, physical properties, interfaces,).
The configuration process for the modular line concept for our production was the Harman/Becker Reference Architecture. This Reference Architecture and Module Concept enables Harman/Becker to find out the necessary modifications when a new product is introduced to be produced and also to make a quick change over to the new product.
In order to get a clear overview of the most important change drivers and their influences on certain sceneries after a variation, a sensitivity analysis was carried out at the Harman/Becker Modular Line Concept. The inputs were the change drivers and attributes from the Production Structure Matrix. The result was the priorisation of change driver sensitivity and the increase of robustness of the Production Systems. The three highest change drivers (number of different components, quantity of components, and double sided placement) have also the most influence of the cost intensive equipments (placing machines).
All work before was necessary to develop a Configuration Toolkit (D-Con). The results of all steps before were over taken as inputs for a data base. Process Phases from the predefined and selected Change Driver Classes and according Production Elements can be adapted to the requirements of the project. Then you can time the process and generate a time schedule in form of a Microsoft Project file. In MS Project you can edit the process phases and/or the production elements by using all functionality MS Project offers.
The MPA (Modular Plant Architecture) -Methodology developed in the course of the project comprises a continuous set of procedures, methods and tools for:
- The definition of successful modularisation strategies,
- The design of production modules according to the particular industrys objectives, their composition to modularised production sites and the derivation of scalable production system architectures bases on these modules,
- The evaluation of alternative modular system solutions considering standardisation, flexibility and adaptability along the extended production system life-cycle,
- Systematic build-up and co-ordination of production systems together with a set of approved strategies for migration towards modular plant architectures of tomorrow.
The MPA-Methodology adapts the concept of modular product platforms known from automobile design to the design of production systems. In order to increase production system flexibility and to extend its lifecycle, the system is decomposed into modules and platforms. While modules encapsulate the system constituents that are object to frequent changes within the systems lifecycle (i.e. product/ volume-specific constituents), platforms include the rather static parts of the system (i.e. location-specific constituents). This way, future changes of relevant parameters can be answered by exchanging or adapting dedicated modules.
The methodology systematically supports the modular production engineering in four phases: analysis, design, evaluation and operation. At first, relevant change drivers for production systems (e.g. production programme, product variants, location conditions etc.) and company-specific objectives are analysed in order to derive an appropriate modularisation strategy from a given set. Based on that, production modules, platforms and reference architectures are generated. Therefore, change driver impacts and relevant system relations are represented in a dedicated model, the so-called Production Structure Matrix (PSM). Systematic generation of alternative modularisation concepts is supported by a set of procedures adapted from Axiomatic Design (SUH). As well, the methodology provides a solution for the evaluation of these concepts in order to identify an appropriate degree of modularity as well as the right balance between specialisation and flexibility utilising scenario-based evaluation techniques. Finally, the method is complemented by a concept continuous improvement of MPA as well as a guideline that provides an approved migration strategies towards MPA.
The method has successfully proven its practical applicability in multiple real-case production modularisation projects carried out by involved industrial partners in the course of the project. Its application has led to considerable savings in terms of investment, running cost, planning cost and time-to-job one.
Descriptions of procedures, methods, and tools for analysis have been thoroughly documented. Furthermore, a case study to implement MPA results in students and professionals education has been elaborated.
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