Study of economics of multitasking with reference to a class of mechanical system components

Abstract

Aerospace components belong to two major categories viz., structural and system parts. Requirement of different family of machining operations (turning, milling, grinding, drilling, boring, etc.) of the mechanical system components increases the number of machines, workpiece set-ups, tool set-ups, machining time and cost of manufacture in the multimachines approach. Multitasking machines (MTMs), which are a class of new CNC machines, enable to combine different family of operations on to a single machine in single workpiece set-up without manual intervention. This paper proposes a methodology to study the economics of MTMs with reference to a class of mechanical system components. The methodology also suggests grouping the machining operations of a part into different family of operations for the multimachines and MTM approach and generates process sheets for manufacture. It also validates the machining process through digital manufacturing simulation, calculates the time and cost of manufacture, and evaluates the economics of the multitasking approach.