Distributed Manufacturing Process Research Articles

Resource Optimisation of Distributed Manufacturing Processes Using Simulation

Non-destructive testing processes in the technological cycle of a wagon repair enterprise largely determine safety of railway transport facilities. The most effective ways to control such processes can only be determined through simulation which makes it possible to assess stability of the production system in a wide range of both external conditions and internal factors.The objective of the work is to create a method for optimising the resources of distributed manufacturing processes for non-destructive testing of a wagon repair depot based on simulation to reduce the likelihood of stopping the production cycle and reducing unreasonable costs of the enterprise.The features of non-destructive testing as a stage of the technological cycle of the enterprise are considered followed by the analysis of information on the qualifications of the specialists of the wagon repair company. The positions of non-destructive testing and controlled details are described and analysed within the framework of the queuing theory. To optimise the non-destructive testing division, simulation modelling is used, while mathematical statistics methods and correlation analysis are used to process the simulation results.A built model of a non-destructive testing unit comprises posts at the units for repair of parts of the automatic coupling devices and the wagon bogie, wheel sets. A production personnel management scheme is proposed, which might be a basis for optimising the organisational structure of the non-destructive testing unit.The simulation resulted in formulating requirements for qualification of non-destructive testing inspectors of the wagon repair depot. It is shown that the optimal strategy for development of a subdivision should be aimed at ensuring the universal qualification of employees, in which they have the necessary competencies to perform work at all testing positions. This will increase the average occupancy rate of NDT inspectors from 0,34 to 0,45 and reduce the average delay time of an item at the post from 650 % to 150 % of the standard time.

Additive Manufacturing: Advances in Trends and Technology

The latest process involved in the design, development and delivery of products to the end users has been implemented utilizing additive manufacturing (AM) or three-dimensional (3D) printing. This technology provides a great deal of freedom in the production of complicated parts, highly personalized goods and effective waste reduction. The new technological and Industrial revolution, utilizes the incorporation of intelligent fabrication and CAD processes. Via its various advantages, such as time and material savings, rapid prototyping, has enhanced productivity as well as distributed manufacturing processes, where AM actively participates and plays significant role in the industrial advancements. This paper is intended to conduct an analytical review of the latest developments and technological aspects in the AM innovation. This paper also explores the viability of the additive manufacturing mechanism as well as the advantages of the product in global, social and ecological fields. At last, the paper finishes with an outline of AM's potential in technologies, implementations and products developments, which will generate new concepts for AM discovery in the coming years..

An extended goal programming model for the multiobjective integrated lot-sizing and cutting stock problem

Lot sizing and cutting stock problems generally arise in manufacturing as a two stage connected process. Although these two problems have been addressed separately by many authors, recently, inspired by practical applications, some studies have emerged analyzing their integration. The mono-objective version of the integrated lot-sizing and cutting stock problem can be considered as an enhancement that minimizes the global production cost. However, it does not include the multiple criteria that can arise from the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in a modern, distributed manufacturing process. This paper aims to introduce a new extended goal programming model for the integrated lot-sizing and cutting stock problem which models the arising multiple criteria by a set of goals representing the interests of different stakeholders in the manufacturing process. This formulation allows for the consideration of the balance between the conflicting goals of multiple stakeholders and the cost efficiency of the overall process. In order to efficiently solve the proposed model, a column generation based heuristic procedure is applied. The trade-offs among the various criteria related to the problem are assessed, and a series of computational experiments are performed. The computational results compare individual criteria weighting schemes and evaluate the goals’ sensitivity using performance profiles and time-to-target plots methodologies.

Trust Issues in Microelectronics: The Concerns and the Countermeasures

The semiconductor industry is constantly striving to improve the performance, reliability, and cost of electronic devices. The growing complexity in the design process of microelectronics coupled with the requirement of significant investment in research and development means that there is hardly any entity in the industry that is capable of acquiring the state-of-the-art technologies for all facets of the development process across myriad niche device technologies. Therefore, for economic and practical reasons, the modern electronic supply chain relies on several different vendors that specialize in a specific area of the design and fabrication process. From a security perspective, this distributed manufacturing process violates the trust of the underlying hardware as any entity in the supply chain could maliciously modify the design. This poses a significant concern, especially for government, military applications, and consumer electronic products handling private and critical data during the acquisition of untrusted microelectronic designs and components. Hence, trust has emerged as a crucial constraint that the various steps in the microelectronic manufacturing process should consider in order to ensure that no malicious functionality exists in the hardware. In the last decade, several works have proposed steps both to establish and verify trust in microelectronics. However, not all threat models are adequately covered, and the solutions are pertinent to a limited category of devices. In this article, we present the challenges in establishing trust in today's distributed supply chain environment by discussing the attack models at each step of the manufacturing process. We also shed light on the existing solutions that try to address these threats and discuss their limitations. Finally, we elaborate on one of the existing supply chain standards where trust verification is still infeasible and identify avenues for future research.

DP-FMEA: An innovative Failure Mode and Effects Analysis for distributed manufacturing processes

The Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a powerful tool to design and maintain reliable systems (products, services or manufacturing processes), investigating their potential failure modes from the threefold perspective of severity, occurrence and detection. The Process FMEA, or more briefly P-FMEA, is a declination of the FMEA for manufacturing processes (or parts of them). Being progressively characterized by decentralized networks of flexible manufacturing facilities, the current scenario significantly hampers the implementation of the traditional P-FMEA, which requires the joint work of a group of experts formulating collective judgments. This paper revises the traditional P-FMEA approach and integrates it with the ZMII-technique – i.e. a recent aggregation technique based on the combination of the Thurstone’s Law of Comparative Judgment and the Generalized Least Squares method – allowing experts distributed through organizations to formulate their judgments individually. The revised approach – referred to as “distributed-Process FMEA” or more briefly dP-FMEA – allows to manage a number of experts, without requiring them to physically meet and formulate collective decisions, thus overcoming a relevant limitation of the traditional P-FMEA. The dP-FMEA approach also includes a relatively versatile response mode and overcomes several other limitations of the traditional approach, including but not limited to: (i) arbitrary formulation and aggregation of expert judgments, (ii) lack of consideration of the dispersion of these judgments, and (iii) lack of estimation of the uncertainty of results. The description is supported by a real-life application example concerning a plastic injection-molding process.

Customising with 3D printing: The role of intelligent control

The emergence of direct digital manufacturing creates new opportunities for the production of highly customised goods especially when it is combined with conventional manufacturing methods. Nevertheless, this combination creates a need for systems that can effectively manage and control the resulting distributed manufacturing process. In this paper, we explore three different configurations that can enable direct digital manufacturing for customisation, ranging from fully integrated to inter-organisational set up. Additionally, control requirements of such systems are developed and the suitability of intelligent control is explored. By ‘intelligent control’ we mean production control that is capable of assessing and interacting with the production environment and adapting production accordingly. We argue that the so called intelligent product paradigm provides a suitable mechanism for the development of such intelligent control systems. In this approach, the intelligent product directly co-ordinates with design agent, 3D printing agents and other conventional manufacturing system agents to schedule, assign and execute tasks independently. Via a case example of a realistic production system, we propose and implement such an intelligent control system and we analyse its feasibility in supporting 3D printing enabled customisation.

IMPlanner-MAS: A Multiagent System for Distributed Manufacturing Process Planning

The paper reports development of the multiagent-based framework for distributed manufacturing process planning. The research builds on previous results in developing intelligent manufacturing planning platform and extends it into agent-based modeling. Both, design and manufacturing tasks are defined as sequences of steps to be performed by highly intelligent autonomous agents. Autonomous agents are classified into two categories: task agents, which are responsible for completing design or manufacturing tasks, and service agents, which provide services for individual steps of those tasks. For multiagent implementation, we have chosen JADE framework and both task agents and service agents have been implemented by extending agents from JADE. Thus, the JADE’s message passing mechanism has been adopted for inter-agent communication and appropriate ontologies for the message passing have been built from planning classes and objects. The brief overview of IMPlanner functionalities has been provided and development and implementation of service agents for several typical manufacturing planning tasks have been explained. The proposed framework has been executed in the context of the simulation model for evaluation of dynamic routing policies.

Manufacturing and Security Challenges in 3D Printing

As the manufacturing time, quality, and cost associated with additive manufacturing (AM) continue to improve, more and more businesses and consumers are adopting this technology. Some of the key benefits of AM include customizing products, localizing production and reducing logistics. Due to these and numerous other benefits, AM is enabling a globally distributed manufacturing process and supply chain spanning multiple parties, and hence raises concerns about the reliability of the manufactured product. In this work, we first present a brief overview of the potential risks that exist in the cyber-physical environment of additive manufacturing. We then evaluate the risks posed by two different classes of modifications to the AM process which are representative of the challenges that are unique to AM. The risks posed are examined through mechanical testing of objects with altered printing orientation and fine internal defects. Finite element analysis and ultrasonic inspection are also used to demonstrate the potential for decreased performance and for evading detection. The results highlight several scenarios, intentional or unintentional, that can affect the product quality and pose security challenges for the additive manufacturing supply chain.

Improving the Communication Performance in Multi-Agent Systems for Distributed Manufacturing Process Control

The distributed control of complex and dynamic manufacturing systems is a challenging task and the multi-agent system (MAS) becomes a suitable solution due to its flexibility in both distributing and integrating software functionalities across the controlled system. This paper investigates the potentials of improving agent message delivery by enhancing the underlying communication network with IP QoS mechanisms using service differentiation and early congestion avoidance techniques. The extensive simulation experiments demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach in providing small latency, small jitter and improved throughputs in ACL message delivery, whilst without deteriorating other data applications between distributed controllers.

A CBFSA approach to resolve the distributed manufacturing process planning problem in a supply chain environment

In this competitive world cost and lead time reduction are of prime concern for manufacturing firms. To achieve this objective manufacturing entities are adopting several management philosophies such as Total Quality Management (TQM), just-in-time (JIT), and theory of constraints (TOC). The present paper addresses the advanced computer-aided process planning (ACAPP) problem in a distributed manufacturing supply chain environment and aims at cost and lead times reduction under several technological constraints. To deal with the complexity of the problem the constraint based fast simulated annealing (CBFSA) algorithm has been explored in this article. Extensive computations have been performed over the well-known benchmarks of advanced planning problems and the results obtained prove the superiority of the proposed algorithm over the prior approaches.

A multi-agent approach using perceptron-based learning for robust operation of distributed chemical reactor networks

Controlling the individual reactors of a chemical reactor network producing different grades of a product requires intelligent reconfiguration strategies. Agent-based approaches are ideal for such distributed manufacturing processes, since they provide flexible, robust, and emergent solutions under dynamically changing process conditions. This paper proposes a multi-layered, multi-agent framework based on a decentralized online learning approach for the supervision of grade transitions in autocatalytic reactor networks. The values for the manipulated variables and the path to the target reactor are determined to give the least disturbance to the system. Case studies illustrate the performance of the approach in managing grade transition and disturbance rejection in a reactor network.

Control of grade transitions in distributed chemical reactor networks—An agent-based approach

Supervision of distributed manufacturing processes producing different grades of a product requires intelligent reconfiguration strategies during grade transition phases to minimize off-spec production. Agent-based approaches are ideal for such problems and they provide flexible, robust, and emergent solutions during dynamically changing process conditions. Three different multi-layered, multi-agent frameworks are proposed for the supervision of grade transitions in autocatalytic reactor networks. The first framework is the centralized framework and it is useful for small-scale grade transitions where only a small region of the network needs to be reconfigured. Alternatively, the other two frameworks use a decentralized approach. The first decentralized framework implements genetic algorithms and the second one uses self-organizing heuristics and auctions for large-scale grade transitions. The case studies demonstrate that as the complexity of the reconfiguration problem increases, decentralized solutions perform more efficiently.

Agent-based distributed manufacturing process planning and scheduling: a state-of-the-art survey

Manufacturing process planning is the process of selecting and sequencing manufacturing processes such that they achieve one or more goals and satisfy a set of domain constraints. Manufacturing scheduling is the process of selecting a process plan and assigning manufacturing resources for specific time periods to the set of manufacturing processes in the plan. It is, in fact, an optimization process by which limited manufacturing resources are allocated over time among parallel and sequential activities. Manufacturing process planning and scheduling are usually considered to be two separate and distinct phases. Traditional optimization approaches to these problems do not consider the constraints of both domains simultaneously and result in suboptimal solutions. Without considering real-time machine workloads and shop floor dynamics, process plans may become suboptimal or even invalid at the time of execution. Therefore, there is a need for the integration of manufacturing process-planning and scheduling systems for generating more realistic and effective plans. After describing the complexity of the manufacturing process-planning and scheduling problems, this paper reviews the research literature on manufacturing process planning, scheduling as well as their integration, particularly on agent-based approaches to these difficult problems. Major issues in these research areas are discussed, and research opportunities and challenges are identified

Computer-supported visualisation of distributed production area information

A key objective in designing human–computer interfaces in the field of production planning and control should be the dynamic visualisation of distributed manufacturing processes, using innovative visualisation elements. Despite years of research activities in the topic of human–machine interfaces in industrial manufacturing environments, innovative visualisation forms (e.g. three-dimensional or realistic visualisation) have yet to be thoroughly experimentally examined from software ergonomic and cognitive psychological points of view. Even though realistic visualisation forms have been implemented in an array of fields (e.g. architecture), there are relatively few statements as to when it is advisable to implement such visualisation forms in industrial production. With help from a recently concluded examination, it should be methodically determined, in which way realistic elements should be used for the presentation of manufacturing information on the shop floor and for the surveillance and control of shop floor processes. Such human–computer interfaces should support the employees in performing operative tasks like the observation and monitoring of manufacturing processes, checking the conditions of machines and tools, assigning materials to orders, tracing breakdowns and so on. Incorrect decisions in shop floor management (e.g. due to insufficient presentation of the information needed for process execution) have a direct influence upon the utilisation, deadline adherence, costs situation and thus the competitiveness of the manufacturing.

A TCPN based approach to model the coordination in virtual manufacturing organizations☆

The recent developments of communication technologies and network computing have enabled the occurrence of the advanced manufacturing strategy--agile manufacturing. The essence of the agile manufacturing strategy is to form a virtual manufacturing organization (VMO), which integrates the core competencies of member enterprises in order to respond to the global market and increasing customer requirements rapidly. In a VMO, the manufacturing processes are distributed. So modeling and coordination of these processes are very complex. In this paper, we present a Petri Net based approach to model these distributed manufacturing processes and interaction relations among them. A workflow based manufacturing process execution environment is also established to support the implementation of the distributed manufacturing processes.

A TCPN based approach to model the coordination in virtual manufacturing organizations$star;*1

The recent developments of communication technologies and network computing have enabled the occurrence of the advanced manufacturing strategy—agile manufacturing. The essence of the agile manufacturing strategy is to form a virtual manufacturing organization (VMO), which integrates the core competencies of member enterprises in order to respond to the global market and increasing customer requirements rapidly. In a VMO, the manufacturing processes are distributed. So modeling and coordination of these processes are very complex. In this paper, we present a Petri Net based approach to model these distributed manufacturing processes and interaction relations among them. A workflow based manufacturing process execution environment is also established to support the implementation of the distributed manufacturing processes.

QoS and network resources management for communication in distributed manufacturing processes

In this paper, we present a multimedia communication model based on the virtual manufacturing device (VMD) concept that has been defined in the international manufacturing message specification (MMS). This model called the virtual communication support (VCS), makes it possible to cohabit different communication techniques, such as ATM and ethernet, provides a multi-profile solution to introduce real-time multimedia applications and manages network resources. Its specification and design used to perform workstation capabilities to avoid network bottleneck. For these purposes, it defines a service set between the application layer and the other communication layers to manage network resources reservation negotiate the quality of service (QoS) and ensure real-time service execution. The design of this communication model is based on the idea of the specification and description language (SDL) use. It is a formal description technique that enables model validation, extension and reusability. The dynamic behavior of this model is being checked with the message sequence chart (MSC). The implementation and the experimentation of this VCS model are being achieved using the JAVA language. It is being done on the fast-ethernet local area network equipped with multimedia and manufacturing devices.

Design of Distributed Manufacturing Systems Using UML and Petri Nets

Abstract This paper describes the design of a supervisory control system for a distributed manufacturing process, which forms part of a wider manufacturing system. The focus of the paper is on the design of a verifiable discrete event controller using a UML based method. The approach adopted involves (i) using Petri net models instead of conventional Statecharts to provide analytic Dynamic Models; and (ii) using compositional Petri net techniques to synthesise the Interconnection Model. The model of the complete controller can be then analysed and verified using Petri net theory. The approach is demonstrated by application to a prototype packaging machine.