If you are responsible for manufacturing operations improvements, you can probably dream of a few solutions that would make some hard production problems go away or take your operations to a new level of efficiency. When you hear titles like “Smart Manufacturing”, it is easy to hope that these initiatives will yield some of those dream solutions.
I was in brainstorming workshops a few weeks ago discussing the next generation of platforms and integrated systems for Smart Manufacturing. The discussions around potential new enhanced processes were very fructiferous, so I am sharing a few ideas I personally found very interesting.
- Manufacturing machines could set up themselves and select the right configuration files based on auto identifying the product’s configuration from an RFID tag.
- More defects could be detected in-process through robotic CMM that read the product configuration RFID, read the latest product definition directly out of CAD files, and automatically measure critical dimensions as the material is cut or product is assembled.
- Processes that depend on final product testing to ensure product quality can cause a lot of scrap waste when the final product does not meet specifications. It would be more efficient to have improved sensors that would monitor the product recipe as ingredients are added and transformed with feedback processes that would adjust the process automatically to account for material, process or environment variables.
- Variation within control specs/limits of raw material properties causes shifts in final product quality. We want to auto adjust our process or recipe to accommodate variations in materials instead of having to demand costly higher accuracy in material specifications. Material would come with actual measured properties instead of us assuming that they meet a specification.
- Employee safety could be improved by using sensors and automating test procedures involving hazardous materials or processes.
It is easy to see that these types of processes would yield many benefits including:
- Quality consistency of realized products with less waste/scrap and rework
- Less labor of non-value added tasks like setup, testing, and fixing
- Lower cost for manufacturing one custom configured piece at a time
- Improved personnel safety
But is it possible to reduce the cost of achieving these levels of automation? Will “Smart Manufacturing” ideas and new technologies get us there? Or will it always be easier to design human sensing and decision making into these processes? Some of the challenges
to achieving these levels of automation include:
- High cost of sensor and analysis technology
- Lack of integration standards between hardware, network and software tiers
- Lack of models that link available measurements/inputs to desired output properties
- Lack of trained resources in the factory to implement new technology
Can we can make these technologies more affordable and easier to implement. If we can, what problems would you want to address in your factory with the new generation of Smart Manufacturing technologies and integration standards?