Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 10-12

Abstract: Single-row layout is widely used within GT cells, in facilities that implement JIT, and sometimes with FMS. The three types of single-row layout, including linear, U-shape, and semi-circular layout are introduced firstly. Based on the lower selling price of customers’ demand, the components of manufacturing cost are analyzed secondly. Then the relationship between the manufacturing cost and objectives of single-row layout are described. Meanwhile, the models related to several parts of manufacturing cost of single-row layout are set up respectively. Finally, the simulation of these models for three types of single-row layout is running in QUEST. After analyzing the simulation results, conclusions are obtained: (1) area and labor utilization of linear layout are higher than the others, (2) material handling cost of semi-circular is lowest among these three types of single-row layout, and (3) equipment utilization of them are almost the same. This research results will provide the references in selecting the types of single-row layout based on manufacturing cost.

Abstract: E-manufacturing and Global Manufacturing Technologies have been widely employed for the Manufacturing Industry. The supplier selection and evaluation is one of the key events to achieve E-manufacturing and Global Manufacturing Technologies successfully. The paper shows the research work has been done in the university and shows the developed innovational tool for the supplier selection in PC industry.

Abstract: With the fast deploying and development of information sharing technologies, the Internet has been extensively applied by modern enterprises to pursue a good, efficient communication with their customers and thus research activities supported by global companies zealously motivate onto the Internet which can be used to advertise their products and provide relevant information within design and manufacturing process. Modern enterprises of manufacturing utilize the benefits of global resource from Internet to make the solution which could cut cycle time and reduce costs during the procedure of product design, development and manufacturing. Due to positive development of graphic technologies and 3D modelling tools, Internet is used as an infrastructure to develop new system and explore potential market by modern enterprises on account of the power of sharing text, value and data but also supports dynamic media such as delivering of high quality and interactive 3D graphical content. In the meantime, much work has been done by companies and numerous modelling systems have been developed to build three-dimensional detailed solid which focuses on designing useful parts and shapes using CAD/CAM technologies. Regarding to the increasing quantities of 3D models and requirement of designers based on design reuse in practice, the investigations suggest the achievement of shape data retrieval is viable and a characteristic 3D model search tool is welcome. This paper presents the framework of web-based system and technologies applied in design and the related barrier to implementation is identified. A method for collection 3D data is described and inevitable recursive analysis and relevant equation are induced.

Abstract: Globalisation in large engineering, procurement and construction companies has lead in many cases to the establishment of a number of global centres for activities such as process design, detail design, procurement and fabrication. A company with a number of such resources then faces the problem of maintaining a high percentage utilisation in each of these resource locations, multiple projects need to be processed through each of these offices and which project is handled by which office is generally more reliant on available capacity than geography, particularly in the case of engineering centres. This paper considers this problem as an extension of the well studied Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (RCPSP) and utilises a modified form of our existing genetic algorithm to optimise the utilisation of multiple resource locations when scheduling multiple projects. The unique aspect of this genetic algorithm implementation is its use of stochastic resource assignments to simulate the assignment of certain of the project activities to different global facilities. The stochastic resource assignment is processed as an extension to the main chromosome and is therefore optimised along with the scheduling sequence.

Abstract: This paper aims to investigate the relationship among business strategies and business performance in global and local manufacturing companies. The research is based an International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS2005) of about 700 companies from more than 20 countries. We first proposed a new method to construct a generic measure of business performance from the available performance measures in IMSS. Based on this new measure we developed a simple discriminant analysis to allocate each entry (company in the IMSS) into a particular category of business performance. Of course we performed some statistical tests to confirm the validity of this classification. We then analysed the contribution (importance) of various environmental and competitive variables to each category of the generic business performance in order to identify the most influential variables and notice of their difference among different business performances. This was done intuitively using graphical analysis, but we also carried out statistical tests to confirm that companies at different performance levels do operate at different environments and pay different attentions to competitive strategies. The models we developed are simple but novel and very practical. The results showed significant differences among business performances in terms of influential variables, and we conclude that this method can also be used to analyse other part of the data from the IMSS.

Abstract: Currently, manufactures pay more attention to customers’ needs and service than products only. In order to quick response to the customer requirements, the Collaborative Commerce (CC) System was developed to support the collaboration work flow and organization of all of the partners of the enterprises which include the after sale service. With the fast developing of the advanced information technology, maintenance technology was embedded with web technical and intelligent technology, that is E-maintenance. Since traditional CC system could not able to support after-sale maintenance service for lack of advanced maintenance service platform. In the paper, a new Collaborative Commerce System embedded with E-maintenance (Em-CC) was proposed. The framework of Em-CC System with multi-agents consideration was introduced, and the enabling technologies and operation mode of E-maintenance subsystem were explained in detail. Finally, an practice example was presented to demonstrate the validity of the system.

Abstract: Briefly reviewed the origin and presence of ASP, elicited the basic requirements of the construction of ASP platform on all-purpose and special needs for enterprises manufacturing the products of engineering machinery. The hierarchy of overall structure for ASP was presented with five layers: client’s layer, representation layer, professional logic layer, integration layer, and resource layer for different functions. Emphasis was focused on the data centers with the representation layer closer to the client’s terminals, the original IT resources stored in the local areas, and important data stored in the secure stations and backup and with standby data centers; on the manufacturing system based on CAD/CAPP/VM and other related techniques; and on the security system with access manipulations, secret keys, ID discriminations and audit tracking. The initial ASP platform has been set up for the medium and small sized enterprises, and was actuated with Rational Rose, UML adopted for the web system, and JavaScript employed for the events, databases, and development of the user’s terminals. Quanhigh Machinery Company was taken as an example in application with four kinds of typical components of engineering machinery.

Abstract: Process database support system is one of the key technologies for green manufacturing implementation. In this paper, the process database support system for green manufacturing was developed with Browse/Server (B/S) three level structure on the basis of Web, which has the function of distributed processing and storage of the data. The composing and its green characteristics were discussed in detail respectively. Furthermore, the key develop technology of the database system, such as network requirement, assistant planning and green assessment of process and the accessing to the database were analyzed. A case study was performed to illustrate and examine the validity of the database system.

Abstract: In the production management as well as in the information technology that supports it, automatically transforming engineering BOM(EBOM) into manufacturing BOM(MBOM) is the key problem of integrating product design system with production planning system. A method of quickly, accurately and automatically transforming EBOM into MBOM based on the bill of process(BOP) is developed. The strict formal definitions of EBOM, MBOM, BOP and the transformation rules of product structures, lead-times and process routines are presented. Based on those, an algorithm of automatically transforming EBOM into MBOM is proposed. Finally, a case from practice of this transformation method in an electric machinery manufacturing enterprise indicates its effectiveness and feasibility.

Abstract: This paper presents a new routing method for advanced flexible manufacturing shopfloor by combining a new Petri net model with a new evolution based hybrid algorithm. The approach embodies the notion of global optimization and thus makes it easier for the new PN to interface with global optimization algorithms. Finally, simulation results show that the proposed method is effective, practical and worthy of more-depth investigations.