Advanced Materials Research Vol. 1018

Abstract: Today many producing companies face two major challenges: they have to maintain a high degree of product differentiation whilst reducing costs through economies of scale. One way to face these challenges is the development of modular product architectures that allow to produce a number of product variants and product generations using one single architecture. The complexity for the product development has thereby increased since expected future changes in products have to be anticipated in the designing process to minimize modification costs. The more robust a product architecture is regarding future changes, the longer an architecture can be used which directly translates into economic advantages for the company. Most companies though struggle to apply the required processes and tools to develop scenario-robust product architectures for their portfolio. This paper aims at the presentation of a methodology to develop alternative, scenario-robust product architecture designs.

Abstract: Production Planning and Control (PPC) does not only play an important role in the classical field of production. Concerning a trend to more customer related products and a so called buyers market, also the not yet strongly automated businesses have to think about topics like PPC. By forming a new automated shop floor in a commercial kitchen for example, new optimization criteria in the PPC play a crucial role. Especially in the manner of scheduling jobs different constraints concerning the handled products come up. This paper demonstrates a possibility to extend the criteria of PPC with the subjective parameter of product quality. This approach allows influencing an oven-control to reach the best product quality in its processing.

Abstract: Reliable and accurate predictions on future states of production systems are the objective of production theories. In this paper, the authors determined shortcomings of current deterministic models and traced them back to the poor theoretical basis of scientific research in the area. The observations resulted in the development of the concept Scientific Management 2.0 as an appropriate research methodology for production management. This new empirical approach takes into account three requirements to scientifically precise investigations: It expands existing theory by socio-technical aspects, uses embedded experiments as a profound basis for investigation and provides a design that warrants the methodical exactness required. RWTH Aachen’s Demonstration Factory represents an adequate infrastructure to prove feasibility and performance of the new approach.

Abstract: Sequencing rules are often used in production control to improve key performance indicators, such as cycle time, mean tardiness and on-time delivery. However, for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) processes, there is a development need for sequencing rules, which effectively improve these indicators since specific requirements have to be considered and recent studies have mainly been using standard rules and do not allow a clear conclusion. This paper describes the modeling and validation of a real-case scenario, the MRO of train couplings by means of an event-driven simulation. The simulation model is used in order to derive and test a new sequencing rule, the Fix-and-continue algorithm (FACA), as well as to compare its results with standard sequencing rules concerning average cycle time, mean tardiness and on-time delivery. Thereby, the potential of the algorithm is revealed.

Abstract: Ever-increasing networking and complexity make production processes more susceptible to disturbances. Being able to handle disturbances quickly and effectively is an evolving factor of a company's competitiveness. The research project "Nachhaltiges Störgrößenmanagement in produzierenden KMU" (Sustainable disturbance management in producing SMEs), conducted at the Institute for Production Systems and Logistics (IFA), is developing a methodology aimed at helping users identify and initiate actions against production disturbances. One research focus was on developing a causal factor chart of the interdependencies between target variables on the shop floor in order to obtain a faster and more objective means of evaluating the effects and significance of disturbances.

Abstract: Enterprises are increasingly being challenged by a high diversity of variants, shortening product life cycles, and growing cost pressure. One possibility of facing these challenges is to improve the efficiency of logistics. As the borderline between a company's production with and without reference to a specific customer order, the customer order decoupling point (CODP) is a good position to significantly increase the efficiency of logistics. Apart from shortening lead times, it may also diminish the lateness at the end of the supply chain. There is currently no comprehensive analytical description of actual schedule variances within a supply chain. This paper presents a Lateness Histogram to serve as an analytical model designed to describe the mean and maximum delivery delay in a store (e.g. CODP). It is fed with the distribution of schedule and quantity variances at the store input as well as the distribution of demand at the store output. Thus, the model is another step towards analytically describing the potentials of implementing a CODP or moving it along the production process in order to obtain a possibility of quantifying the amount of lateness reduction as the CODP moves downstream. This is followed by empirical simulation studies aimed at validating the model.

Abstract: Modern enterprises face the challenge of volatile markets. The multifarious influencing factors particularly include uncertain demand quantities. This means that it is increasingly important for production systems to be able to react quickly. At the same time, it is becoming more and more difficult to adequately depict this specific volume flexibility due to the complexity of the systems involved. Although existing research work has recognised flexibility as a decisive competitive factor for production systems, the focus until now has only been on qualitative investigations. Quantitative approaches are only found for specific problems. This paper presents a new approach to depict and analyse the volume flexibility of production systems in consideration of existing definitions and approaches. The resulting paths of investigation serve as approaches for future research projects for a quantitative analysis and optimisation of the volume flexibility of production systems.