Engine Assembly Line Research Articles

Simulation analysis and performance improvement of engine assembly line

Simulation is used frequently for performance measurement and improvement. The purpose of this paper is to investigate an existing engine assembly line at Detroit Diesel with a known bottleneck station, and determine the best solution to improve the output of this process and accommodate a future decrease in cycle times. The assembly line uses automated guided vehicles (AGVs) to transport the engines and at this station there is a second path available to add an additional process. A simulation of the existing system is completed, and improvement ideas are simulated and analysed to determine which solution best suits the assembly line’s need for throughput improvement. The study shows significant performance improvement in two automatic system of the valve lash operation. The confidence interval shows lower variability if two-automatic system is used compared to hybrid system. The concern was raised for the manual operation due to ergonomical problems. Flexible simulation shows how to improve the system without disrupting production and operational systems.

Information Modeling and Knowledge Management Approach to Reconfiguring Manufacturing Enterprises

This research aims to gain a detailed understanding of data producers, data consumers and format/flow of the data within automotive industry for defining and using Bill of Process (BoP) for engine assembly lines. The focus remained on the real industrial challenge of rapid constraint evaluation for designing and/or reconfiguration of Powertrain assembly lines to cater for a new/changed product. A methodology is developed to facilitate Ford Company to quickly model and re-configure new/changed assembly line for building new/changed engine. This is made possible with the help of modular approach and developing relationships among products, processes and resources. The data and information of the PPR is made available to all the stake holders of the organisation independent of the platform or specific application being used at the department/facility.

Interactive assembly tool planning based on assembly semantics in virtual environment

Assembly tool planning in virtual environment remains to be a challenge because of the complexity and variety in tools configuration and manipulation. In order to solve the problem, an interactive assembly tool planning based on assembly semantic model is proposed. After detailed analysis on assembly tool planning in virtual environment, an improved assembly semantic model is represented, and a new assembly tool model is developed based on assembly semantic model. With the help of assembly semantic processing method, such as recognition, solving, navigation and so on, a series methods including assembly tool selection, orientation, manipulation are proposed for interactive assembly tool planning in virtual environment. Finally, tightening tool planning for connecting rod caps of auto engine assembly line demonstrates the feasibility and validity of presented methods.

Development of manufacturing execution system with production modelling approaches

Rapid changes of market demands and pressures of competition required manufacturers to maintain highly flexible manufacturing systems. As more and more manufacturing execution systems were used in real industry, it was not feasible to build the MES systems from scratch every time. Even in the plants that were running the MESs, these systems must be configurable to adapt the products upgrading. In this work, we presented a MES model based on workflow technology. The configurable architecture was introduced. With this new architecture, the developers could model the production process visually and set the resource constraints rapidly. Some key implement methods were also introduced in this paper. A successful application of an automobile engine assembly line shows that using of this kind of architecture promotes the progress of development and reduces the manufactures' cost.

Manufacturing Execution System Based on a Production Process Modeling

Configurable MES is a hot attention in today’s industry. In this work, we present a MES model based on a production process modeling method. With the workflow management technology, a configurable MES framework is introduced and some important implementation methods such as production process modeler, activity script language and production process scheduler are presented. A successful application of an automobile engine assembly line shows that this model is useful and effective.

Development of a digital manual for a manufacturing system – a case study

This paper describes the development and evaluation of an information system to identify spare parts associated with an automated assembly machine that is part of a Ford engine assembly line. The information system is a digital manual, similar to a class of document called an integrated electronic technical manual. The requirements of teams of users in the engine plant are described before explaining the use of multimedia tools to create a suitable information system. The result is a collection of digital documents connected by hyperlinks to form a digital manual. Usability trials indicated that maintenance technicians and line operators would actually use such a manual in the factory. Ford maintenance managers indicated that such a manual would benefit them and the benefits are presented in detail. A version of the manual was developed for data collection and it is suggested that, in future, such manuals might be the factory users’ interface to a computerised maintenance management system.

Special Issue on Flexible Force Control and Process-Adaptive Production Systems

In the recent assembly lines, the frequency of changing processes has been increasing in line with high mix production, but because these changes are carried out by operator, the burden of changing processes has increased as well. This situation has arisen because of the fact that since the robots being used at present automatic assembly lines are based on a simple teaching and playing back method, human workers must renew instructions for each act of changing a work object and also that dedicated machines are necessary due to the inability of making precision assembly,thereby inviting declines in total operational rates and increases in cost. These facts are limiting the use of robot based automation itself and are one of the important factors for the declining international competitive power. Under these circumstances, with the aim of constructing sophisticated production systems that are capable of dealing with process changes automatically without the use of human labor, a project called ""Research & Development of Process Adaptive Flexible Robots""was proposed and was adopted to the Regional Consortium Research and Development Enterprise supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, and was adopted. The research period was to be 3 years from the fiscal year 1997 to the fiscal year 1999, and the total research fund was to be 360 million yen. In more specific terms, an engine assembly line and a semiconductor testing process were chosen as research subjects; and developmental research was carried out for elemental techniques that are necessary for the flexible execution of tasks such as piston insertion causing no damage to walls even with a minute clearance, or IC chip insertion causing no plastic deformation even with positional dislocation, though these tasks must be carried out when works change in type, size, etc.; and the researchers started the work of developing system integration technology that would achieve these task objectives in the optimal manner. Attention was focused rather on ""force control"" of which humans make skillful use than on developmental work based on the conventional position control technology, and development objectives were set not only to achieve a breakthrough for putting force control technology into practice by way of the integration of flexible force control and high aprecision position control and also by way of controlling the vibrations of complex machine systems, but also to demonstrate the research results by means of two prototypes of a flexible robot for assembly lines and an inserter for IC chip testing. The present special issue is a collection of results achieved by the participating research organization in the present research and development work, and it will be a great pleasure for its editors if this issue contribute seven a little. toward the future practical use of force control. Finally, sincere appreciation is expressed to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization for providing an opportunity for carrying out this research and development work, as well as to all the organizations for their participation in the project.

Simulação de uma linha de montagem de motores

A Simulação tem-se mostrado bastante eficaz na solução de problemas complexos, tais como aqueles envolvidos no projeto de sistemas de produção orientados a produtos - linhas de montagem e fabricação. Neste trabalho, apresenta-se um exemplo de aplicação nesse contexto, no qual a Simulação foi empregada na avaliação do projeto de uma nova linha de montagem de motores na Ford do Brasil.

First turnkey delivery of robotized assembly lines for car engines and cylinder heads

The robotized cylinder head and engine assembly lines at the Opel car factory in Kaiserslautern, Germany, make it one of the most advanced of its kind in the world. Designed and installed by ABB as a turnkey system, the project has set new standards for logistics, floor‐space requirements, economy and productivity. Zero‐defect production was given the highest priority during planning and realization of the assembly lines. Robot stations, special‐purpose machines and manual workstations have been combined in a way that optimizes the plant configuration and achieves maximum benefit for the plant operators.

Diesel Engine Assembly

Modern‐day assembly lines for car and truck engines are highly automated installations. Although their basic design, relatively inflexible conveyor systems, and dedicated automatic stations have hardly changed over the years, they have become more and more complex. This has meant that the time frames for their planning and installation have steadily increased. Growing competition is nevertheless forcing the industry to install highly automated assembly systems in ever‐shorter times. Working together with the customer, ABB Montage und Test Automation GmbH in Germany planned and installed in a short time a diesel engine assembly line while the engines were still being developed. It included different flexible conveyor systems and 16 six‐axis robots.

An Examination of an Engine Manufacturing Plant′s Downtime and Production Standards

In this article a case study is reported which deals with identifying the sources of downtime, and a procedure which could help management to predict whether the daily production standards in auto assembly‐line operations could be met given the intensity of sources of downtime. This study was conducted for a large auto engine manufacturer. The engine assembly line under study is subject to good preventive maintenance to avert unexpected breakdowns that would shut down the line or lower the quality so as to reduce the yield in total. Two multivariate statistical procedures are used – factor analysis and multiple discriminant analysis.

CITROËN AUTOMATE ENGINE ASSEMBLY

AUTOMATION PLAYS A MAJOR ROLE IN THE NEW ENGINE ASSEMBLY LINES INSTALLED BY CITROËN AT ITS TREMERY PLANT. THE LINES BUILD ENGINES WHICH EQUIP THE CINTROËN XM AND PEUGEOT 605 ‐ Set up in 1979 by Citroën and Peugeot subsidiary, SMAE (Societe Mecanique Automobile de l'Est), the Tremery plant employs some 4,400 people to produce 5,600 engines a day, that is almost four a minute. The latest engine to enter production is the XUD 11, the four cylinder 12‐valve diesel version fitted in the new top quality models.

Ergonomic implications in the design of an engine assembly line : Chan, W.L., Pethick, A.J., and Graves, R.J. In: Contemporary ergonomics 1987, E.D. Megaw (Ed). Taylor and Francis, London, 1987, pp 140–145

Ergonomic implications in the design of an engine assembly line : Chan, W.L., Pethick, A.J., and Graves, R.J. In: Contemporary ergonomics 1987, E.D. Megaw (Ed). Taylor and Francis, London, 1987, pp 140–145

Development of Automated Flexible Manufacturing System for Medium Variation and Medium Volume Production

To meet the variation of customer's needs we have developed the highly automated flexible manufacturing system in the automobile engine shop which is aimed at attaining the same high productivity and low cost as in mass production system. This system consists of continual flexible production lines and an automated process design system assisted by computers. These lines use 126 NC machine tools as basic machine, and are able to produce 5,000 engines of 10 to 15 different types a month. The production lines consist of 7 machining lines for cylinder block, cylinder head, crankshaft, etc., 1 engine assembly line and 1 evaluation and testing line. These production lines have been so designed as to execute automated random production of the parts of different shapes with the philosophy of “just in time” of the Toyota production system. The automated process design system automatically determines the sequence of machining processes, selection of tools and their cutting conditions, production instruction drawings and NC program for each process. By the development of these systems, the production system with the continual flow of information ranging from product design to manufacturing has been completed, thus securing many benefits such as lower investment and shortened preparation time in the course of introduction of new engines.