A methodology for manufacturing system development
Gunilla Sivard, Magnus Lundgren
KTH - Royal Institute of Technology, Department of Production Engineering, Stockholm, Sweden
gunilla.sivard@iip.kth.se
ABSTRACT
In a model driven development scenario, the models of parts, processes and resources
themselves are the carriers of information which is used and refined throughout the work
processes. In this article, some basic concepts concerning model driven development are
put forward, and a generic model driven work process is described, which covers the
manufacturing development activities on a comprehensive level. Further, a case study of
the development of a new motor line at the truck company Scania is presented to
exemplify the concepts. The model driven approach is described on a more detailed level
in the context of process planning.
Keywords: Manufacturing system design, development process, model-based
The fundamental principle of this model driven
1. INTRODUCTION approach is to clearly describe how the value of the
manufacturing system is growing throughout the
This paper intends to describe and clarify the main activities of the development process. Rather than
ideas and concepts underlying a methodology for describing a development process in stages with
model driven manufacturing system development. declared gates and results such as “project description”
General ideas of model and information based or “requirement document”, the purpose is to model
development processes are presented and exemplified each activity as a function with a description of which
in a manufacturing system development scenario. manufacturing system information it requires and
generates. This way the generic development model
An underlying hypothesis of the work is that an can be adapted to different companies by selecting
information driven work process model facilitates activities relevant to the needs. Moreover, since the
iterative and parallel work since it clearly describes model is independent of the business process, it can be
activities in terms of required and resulting information. adapted to any company’s selected business process
model.
• Interdependencies are easier to discover,
understand and manage
• Activities can start and be performed in parallel Develop Process
as long as there is enough information process plan plan
This hypothesis is neither verified nor refuted, but the
paper puts some evidence forward to indicate its
validity.
Develop Layout,
The proposed method is a result of research work in the
system Material
ModArt project [0] within the Swedish MERA program flow
(Manufacturing Engineering Research Area). ModArt
(Modelldriven Artikel¬tillverkning) is an acronym in
Swedish for Model Driven Component Manufacturing.
Model driven development is the central theme of the
project, with ideas developed in a close collaboration
Develop Production
between industry and academy. ModArt is organized in
resources resources
four different main areas: Manufacturing Process
Planning, Factory Planning, Equipment Investment and
Information System Support.
Fig. 1: The basic activities in manufacturing
system development using the Astrakhan modeling
2. DEVELOPMENT MODELS annotation [1]
2.1. Model driven manufacturing system development
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2.2. Different types of model driven The manufacturing system is decomposed by
production resources such as machine tools, tools,
Activities can utilize separate parameters or full models fixtures, material handling systems, resources which
with a certain purpose, viewpoint and detailing level, realize the processes. Apart from equipment, the
useable for answering questions [2][3]. The type of building and media are also considered production
model driven development depends on whether the resources. The processes are the sequences of
information and activities can be interpreted and operations on a micro, machine, level which contribute
performed by humans or by computer programs. to the total flow of materials on a systems level. Figure
4 shows a crude concept model of some manufacturing
concepts needed to describe the system. More
comprehensive models can be found in [4] and [5][6].
The layout describes the geometrical interaction
between resources, where the material flow describes
their functional interactions.
The production resources are placed in relation to each
other in a layout. The shape of the layout is determined
by the dimensions of the resources, the material flow,
Fig. 2: Model driven manufacturing system buffers, truck corridors, control and maintenance
development platforms, media supply etc. Thus the principle is to
describe three main activities – the one developing the
In a digital model driven development, computer processes, one developing the resources which realize
readable, digital, models are used as input (input, the processes and the third one which integrates the
control and support) to an activity which delivers digital processes and resources into a system.
models as a result. In this paper, even a process where
information is described in plain text, interpreted and
Station contains
used by humans, is considered information driven if the Material flow
activities performed are clearly driven by the
Executes Machine tool
information they use and create. Kind of Resource
Buffer
An example of a fully digital model driven development
Operation performs
is when models of parts and resources, such as 3D-
MTBF
models of parts with features and tolerances, are used Operation State
in process planning programs to automatically create a sequence Sequence of
sequence of machining operations. Property of
MTTR
Process
plan
2.3. Manufacturing system development process and Toolpaths Cycle time
information
In process
In a model driven manufacturing system development, models
with its sub processes of process planning, factory Fig.4 : Crude model of concepts in manufacturing
design, production investment and operations, the
models of parts, processes and resources themselves
are the carriers of information which are used and 2.4. The development process in general
refined throughout the work processes.
In theory, design should be performed as a top-down,
zig-zag process where functional requirements are
stated on a high level, met by a solution which poses
new requirements on a more detailed level, which are
met by solutions which pose new requirements and so
on [7][8].
Apart from functional requirements, there are
constraints which cannot be met by a specific design
parameter, but which rather delimits the whole solution,
such as weight limitations.
Fig.3 : Processes and models in manufacturing
system development [0]
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Needs&Scope used for preparing a process plan, which results in
models of operation sequences, cycle times etc.
Operation sequences are used as a basis for designing
Requirements
Specify the manufacturing concept, for determining the total
Verify flow, and for dimensioning buffer capacities. Machine
Solution dimensions are used for designing the layout. Runtime
data from operations of earlier machine lines is used to
estimate probable stop-times for the new line.
Generate
Develop manufacturing system
Process plan
Develop Alternative operations
Parts
Fig.5: Simplified design activities Volume
process sequences
Cycle times
Material flow
Develop flow Buffer sizes
Even in a design process which is not performed in a Balanced operations
sequence
pure top-down zigzag manner, most requirements are Actual
Speed of material
handling systems (e.g.
conveyor)
performance
not fixed when design starts, but the design process is MTBF, MTTR
as much a process of defining the appropriate Develop Develop
Resources Layout
requirements as a process of finding an appropriate resources
Functional properties
layout Positions of
resources
solution [9]. Physical properties
Operate and improve
Needs&Scope manufacturing
system
Difference
Specify Requirements
(Modify) Verify Fig.7: Design activities in a case scenario
(Clarify)
Solution
Each design activity can be seen as either the activity
Difference
of designing the output based on the inputs, or the
Generate other way around - of defining the requirements on the
(Modify) inputs based on a desired output. E.g. a process
planning activity is either using the machines attribute
spindle speed as an input to determine the cycle time of
an operation, or use the desired cycle time to specify
Fig.6: Design activities with feedback the required spindle speed.
This can also be seen as a negotiation of what Specify manufacturing system
Operations
requirements should be there, what values they should Volym,
ABL: Design
process .
and in-
process
models
have, and how important they are on a scale from firm artikel-
storlek Operations , cycle times
Operation -
non-negotiable requirements to options and wishes. MLP FPL: Design
production
Operationsfölj
d med
sequence with
buffers and
Product buffertar och transports
koncept transporter
Maskin,
tekniska Process
In manufacturing system development, each activity data Engineer
Buffer-and
FPL: Detail transport-
contributes to defining various parts of the system: the Machine, MTBF,
flow capacity
MTTR
process plan, the production resources and the system technical data
Quest
itself (layout and flow). Each part constrains each other: Machine dimensions
Positioner
the process plan, layout and material flow descriptions PIL: Design
production
FBL: Collect
FPL : Design
layout
för stationer
Dimensioner
data from för buffert
serve as requirements and constraints on the resources
operations och
transport
production resources, and the properties of selected Excel PUS Process
Layout,
positions
Engineer and
resources constrains the properties when designing the dimensions
processes and layouts.
Thus depending on what the incentive is – where the
Fig. 8: Model driven manufacturing system
change starts – a parameter is either a driving input or
development
resulting output: the spindle max speed of a machine
may be either input data to process planning or
requirements on a new machine resulting from process Each of the activities may use a software tool to support
planning. the activity, and in this use case, Machining Line
Planner (UGS/Siemens) was used for process
planning, Process Engineer (Dassault) for factory
3. USE CASE: Development of a new motor
design and Quest (Dassault) for flow simulation.
line at Scania
3.1. Process planning (Machining Preparation Process)
A new line for manufacturing cylinder heads is under Rather than top-down design, in process planning you
development at Scania, a truck company in Sweden. often have to state many design attributes early on,
The scenario describes how models of machines are making educated guesses, and then modifying these
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values after testing the results and acquiring more
information. Thus the design process is the process of
elimination of doubt, iteratively narrowing down the
uncertainty of the parameters, rather than detailing an
abstract system down to a detailed description of the
parts.
1) Process planning is conceptual as long as there is
unambiguous or contradictory information about what to
do, how and with what. Such "conflicts" are temporary
solved by improvising by making assumptions.
2) Depending on the actual situation there can be more
or less unambiguous/contradictory information, e.g. we
can assume that when process planning is interacting
with the product development process there will be a lot
of unclear, unambiguous and contradictory information
which must be considered. On the other hand
developing a new manufacturing system for an existing
product (such as in the case) is probably characterized
by more concise information as there is experience, the
product specification is quite fixed as are the
corresponding manufacturing methods. So from a
process planning perspective there is not so much
unclear, unambiguous or contradictory information. But
it's still a "conceptual process plan" when there are no
formal decisions made.
The key interaction object between the process
planning (ABL), system design (FPL) and resource
investment (PIL) activities is the "Conceptual Process
Plan" which perhaps from a PIL and FPL perspective
can be viewed as a "negotiable should requirement" (if
we refer to requirements in terms of MUST, SHOULD
and CAN), i.e. the "Conceptual Process Plan" is not
fixed, it can be revised on request from FPL or PIL
because it might be desirable to change the plan due to
restrictions caused, or opportunities offered, by real
equipment.
To develop process plans for new products, process
planners often follow more or less a consistent set of
steps.[10]
Fig. 9: Process planning as modelled in the ModArt
Study the overall shape of the part., identify the
project.
basic structure of the pan and potential difficulties in
its production.
Group the part features based on the required
Determine the best raw material shape to use if raw setups so that each group of features can be
stock is not given. produced in the same setup. Then select machining
operations for the collected part features for each
Identify datum surfaces and determine the minimum
setup.
number and types of setups required to machine the
datum surfaces. Then associate each setup with Order the sequence of the operations. For each
appropriate machining operations. setup determine the operation sequence required to
produce the related datum surfaces and/or features,
Identify part features or geometric shapes, that are
based on the interference and dependency between
to be cut into the stock, from which the part is to be
operations.
formed. Determine the shapes of the tools needed,
the movements of the machines required, and the Select tools for each operation attempting to use the
paths the tools must follow when cutting the stock. same tool for several operations if possible. The
tradeoff between tool-change time and machining
time has to be considered.
34
Select or design fixtures for each setup which 6. REFERENCES
depends heavily on the process planner’s
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4. DISCUSSION and CONCLUSION
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5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man,
and Cybernetics, Los Angeles, CA, USA, 1990 Nov
This work is financed by the ModArt project of 4-7, publ. IEEE, IEEE Service Center, Piscataway,
VINNOVAs MERA program. Model driven development NJ, USA.
is the central theme of the project, with ideas developed
in a close collaboration between industry and academy. [12] Womack, James P., Jones, Daniel T., and Roos,
Within ModArt we especially want to thank Scania for Daniel (1991), The Machine That Changed the
sharing their internal process models for machine World: The Story of Lean Production,
investments and process planning. Further we want to HarperBusiness, ISBN 0-06-097417-6.
thank Sven Hjelm, Björn Holmgren and Mattias
Söderholm for key ideas, valuable input and
illustrations.
We also acknowledge the research interaction within
the European network of excellence VRL-KCiP.
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