Int J Adv Manuf Technol (2002) 19:812820 2002 Springer-Verlag London Limited

Development of a Remote Collaborative Forging Engineering System

J. P. Tsai1, Y.-C. Kao2 and R S Lee3
1

Centre for Virtual Design, Far East College, Taiwan; 2Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan; and 3Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan

The ever-growing demand for high-quality products with lower cost and shorter time-to-market is a challenge in todays global market. This paper presents a methodology for merging the new technologies of networking and multimedia, with a conventional forging system to form a remote collaborative forging engineering system. The activities of conventional forging engineering design and manufacturing processes planning were analysed and a structural model is proposed for forging enterprises to investigate and improve their engineering activities. The synergy of networking and multimedia technologies is adopted in communicating and coordinating the activities of the engineers of a multinational enterprise dispersed in different locations, using computer supported cooperative work. For the next generation forging engineering environments, the concept of a remote collaborative forging engineering system provides a new approach and strategy to enhance their competitive advantages; and it also provides a fast, economical and experiencesharing method for the enterprises. An industrial example is used to illustrate the proposed system. Keywords: Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW); Concurrent engineering; Forging engineering; System modelling; Videoconferencing

1.

Introduction

In order to cope with the strong competition in todays global market, enterprises should equip themselves with the ability for efcient and effective communication [1] in order to transfer the right information to the right people at the right time and at the right place. In the last two decades, manufacturing globalisation has been growing rapidly and its importance is increasing. This can be attributed to the rapid growth of world trade and the substantial increase in the number of multinational enterprises engaged in multilocation operations [2]. Much effort
Correspondence and offprint requests to: R.-S. Lee, Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, 701 Taiwan. E-mail: merslmail.ncku.edu.tw

has been focused on computer supported cooperative work (CSCW) since the 1980s [36]. A CSCW environment contains communication tools such as application software sharing, electronic whiteboard, text chat board, le transfer, and videoconferencing. Most of the work focused on creating an environment for co-authoring documentation and information-exchange, such as collaborative word-processing or collaborative CAD and CAE, but rarely focused on collaborative product and process development. The application of multimedia tools in the manufacturing industry [7,8] has been paid signicant attention since the advent of the Internet. Most of the manufacturing companies have begun to integrate multimedia and networking technologies for shortening the cycle time of new product procurement, research and development, and sale and service, etc. Furthermore, the current trend of quick response in manufacturing has forced companies to adopt new manufacturing strategies in organising and performing their product development processes, considering subtasking and outsourcing distributed in multilocations. Product and process development is a very complicated engineering process including intensive interactions among development tasks, and requires iterative discussion to communicate and coordinate the redesign processes such as design for manufacturing and assembly. The concept of concurrent engineering and integrated product and process development has been current for several years. The essence of concurrent product and process development is an integrated and collaborative process, where people in different disciplines cooperate to design products and specify relevant processes through coordination, communication, and negotiation [9,10]. Chen et al. [11,12] used object-oriented modelling and feature-based techniques to propose a collaborative framework of team data management for concurrent product and process development. Lee et al. [13,14] integrated knowledge, geometry, and data to develop a concurrent mould design system. Since new product and process development involve simultaneously a wide variety of design and manufacturing expertise, and adopting new multimedia and network techniques, concurrent engineering would be a feasible solution to integrate worldwide dispersed expertise.

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This paper proposes a collaborative forging engineering system by combining IDEF0 (the integrated denition for function modelling) structural analysis modelling, the concurrent engineering concept, and CSCW methodology to speed up and improve product and process development. There are four steps in the proposed system: 1. Analysis of conventional forging engineering processes. 2. Process modelling of a remote collaborative forging engineering system. 3. Framework development of the remote collaborative forging engineering system. 4. Construction of the remote collaborative forging engineering system framework. The proposed system can facilitate the rationalisation and synchronisation of the design and manufacture of forging tools, and thus can improve efciency and quality, resulting in a reduction of the product development cost in a competitive forging engineering environment.

2. Analysis of Conventional Forging Engineering Processes

Conventionally, product design is an iterative process. For instance, the result of engineering analysis may demand a change in the design stage that, in turn, affects related manufacturing and assembly stages. Therefore, proper communication and coordination, in advance, is indispensable to avoid a waste of time and costs that might arise from redesign. The characteristics of the conventional forging engineering process involve many iterative activities for design change, as shown in Fig. 1. A new methodology or strategy is explored to integrate the available experts to discuss collaboratively and provide in-time opinions and contribute their experiences to shorten the cycle time of process development. This paper proposes a framework for a remote collaborative forging engineering system to improve product development cycles.
Fig. 1. Conventional forging engineering system process.

and interrelated systems [15]. IDEF0 is also known as a functional modelling method for analysing and communicating the functional perspectives of a system, because it provides effective assistance in organising system analysis and promoting communication between the analyst and the customer. The result of IDEF0 functional modelling is a hierarchical, functional decomposition of process functions, each of which consists of ve basic elements: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Functional block. Input. Output. Control. Mechanism.

3. Process Modelling of a Remote Collaborative Forging Engineering System

The analysis and re-engineering of a forging engineering system is presented in this section. An integrated denition for functional modelling structural analysis methodology was employed rst to analyse the conventional forging engineering processes, and then the CSCW concept was associated with this model to form a remote collaborative forging engineering system.
3.1 Process Modelling with the IDEF0 Functional Modelling Methodology

IDEF0, one of the IDEF family of methods, is used to analyse the forging engineering process. It is a structural analysis and modelling technique specially designed for the modelling of decisions, actions, and activities of organisations or complex

Functional blocks represent the activities or tasks of the system or process being investigated. Inputs to a function are materials transformed by the function. Outputs of a function are the results transformed from the inputs by the function. Controls to a function are the constraints, criteria, or conditions governing the performance of the function. Mechanisms are the means used to perform or the resources used to support the function. One of the special characteristics of IDEF0 modelling is its hierarchical decomposition process. The higher activities represent more general and abstract concepts, which can be decomposed into lower-level activities representing more specic and detailed concepts. The model developed for a remote collaborative forging engineering system, as shown in Fig. 2, is the synergy of the IDEF0 structural analysis model and the CSCW methodology. The purpose of remote collaborative forging engineering system

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Fig. 2. IDEF0 diagram of system analysis for remote collaborative forging engineering system (A0 layer).

analysis is to realise the characteristics of product and process development of forging engineering, including the activities and tasks, constraints, supporting resources, and information ow. These activities are: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Requirement analysis. Preliminary design. Process and die design. Forgeability evaluation and process simulation. Machinability evaluation of die electrode. Die electrode machining. EDM and forging die manufacture.

3.2 Topics Included in the Remote Collaborative Forging Engineering System

To describe the contents of the required cooperative work in

a remote collaborative forging engineering system, Fig. 3 illustrates the engineering processes, communication methods, and the subjects of coordination in a collaborative session of the system. The communication and coordination of a virtual team may be empowered by means of CSCW tools through various network services. The demand for a broader bandwidth is increasingly necessary for digital audio and video data transmission owing to the signicant data networking load. The exploitation of new technologies along with the enhancement of the network backbone has improved transmission quality by adopting QoS (quality of service) of network. A more detailed description and explanation of CSCW tools and network services are given in Section 4. There are various topics in different sessions of the remote collaborative forging engineering system, as shown in Fig. 3. Process modelling requires the construction of a proper framework so as to facilitate discussion panels in collaborative sessions on these topics.

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Fig. 3. Remote collaborative forging engineering system.

4. Framework Development of the Remote Collaborative Forging Engineering System

4.1 Generic Remote Collaborative Engineering System Framework

6. Quality control specialist. 7. Industrial designer. 8. Vendors or suppliers representatives. Discussion and evaluation issues include surface error analysis at the design or manufacturing stage, selection of material and devices, appearance and shape of the product, and the selection of a manufacturing process. Key functions of the control layer are videoconferencing and application sharing. Videoconferencing provides a communication and coordination channel for local and remote engineers. However, application sharing provides an engineering application software (such as CAD/CAE/CAM) sharing function so that engineers can view identical engineering-simulation scenes from individual computer monitors. To achieve this goal, this paper adopts the methodology of CSCW. CSCW tools include application sharing, videoconferencing, electronic whiteboard, text chat board, and le transfer. Videoconferencing is used for dynamic and in-time video and audio transmission for a one-on-one direct conversation to clear up long-standing questions [16], while the demand for QoS is very high because delays in video or audio transfer may cause misleading information or impatience. However, an electronic whiteboard is used to share and discuss static data such as texts, images,

In order to depict the systems function and the requirements for software, hardware, network service, and infrastructure, this paper constructs a three-layered framework for a remote collaborative forging engineering system, as shown in Fig. 4. The upper layer is the application layer, the intermediate layer is the control layer, and the lower layer is the physical layer. The main function of the application layer is knowledge sharing; and its activities focus on collaborative discussion and evaluation among the virtual team. The virtual team comprises members such as: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Product design engineer. Product manager. Manufacturing engineer. Technician. Material specialist.

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Fig. 4. Generic remote collaborative forging engineering system framework.

and sketches. The lower layer, or physical layer, is devised for hardware device communication through network services underlying its infrastructure. Hardware devices comprise computers, monitors, cameras, microphones, CODEC cards for video and audio data compression/decompression, network cards, and multi-point control units (MCUs) for group videoconferencing.
4.2 Construction of the Remote Collaborative Forging Engineering System Framework

4.2.2 CAM Module

This module includes two subactivities: 1. Die electrode machining. 2. EDM and forging die manufacture. These subactivities are the main tasks in the die making processes. In general, manufacturing staff must propose reasonable manufacturing processes, methods, and sequences based on manufacturing practices that are normally provided by experienced personnel. Only the database or knowledge base contains the die making rules or experiences, and the rational manufacturing processes can be scheduled through the interactive operation with the CAM module. Numerical control (NC) codes can then be processed more rapidly and correctly. The CAM module considers the current work load as the necessary item to deal with and also offers suggestions on impractical designs.
4.2.3 CAE Module

A collaborative forging engineering system framework is constructed by considering distributed forging engineering activities. This framework, as shown in Fig. 5, consists of ve modules: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. CAD module. CAM module. CAE module. CSCW tools and network services module. Database and knowledge base module. These modules are explained in the following subsections.
4.2.1 CAD Module

The CAD module is the kernel of the entire system and includes three subactivities: 1. Requirement analysis. 2. Preliminary design. 3. Process and die design. This module communicates with customers and exchanges experiences for engineering activities. Traditionally, advanced users apply CAD software for engineering drafting and/or drawing based on their experiences in the designing function and the geometry, but the technology know-how cannot be accumulated by so doing. The CAD module offers not only die design technology but also provides effective integration and support for database sharing.

The evaluation of the activities in the CAE module is one of the major tasks in this work. The main characteristic of CAE is that it takes advantage of the computation capability of a computer to analyse the designed processes before the die cavity is made, for example, the simulation of forging processes such as die lling, stressstrain and temperature distribution. Although computer simulation cannot replace shop oor testing totally, a signicant lead time reduction of die trial and related cost can be obtained. This module consists of two subactivities: 1. Forgeability evaluation and process simulation. 2. Machinability evaluation of die electrode and die electrode machining. The nite element analysis system DEFORM (Design Environment for FORMing) [17] was adopted in the forgeability evaluation through process simulation; VERICUT [18] was adopted to verify the die electrode machining path.
4.2.4 CSCW Tools and Network Services Module

The CSCW tools and network services module is included here to support an effective and robust information sharing

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Fig. 5. Remote collaborative forging engineering system framework.

environment for distributed work. This module provides the necessary tools and techniques for system coordination, communication and resource sharing through appropriate networking services. The proposed system can be borderless and work effectively through this module.
4.2.5 Database and Knowledge Base Module

This module provides the channel for establishing parametric design data, constructing impractical rules and related search engines. For example, commercial CAD/CAM/CAE software can already offer rational databases or knowledge bases directly or indirectly for supporting engineering activities such as manufacturing process planning, machine tool and die material selection. This module is very important for process automation and system integration.

5.
5.1

Implementation and Discussion

System Conguration and Example

The system conguration, as shown in Fig. 6, illustrates the implemented remote collaborative forging engineering system between the Metal Forming Laboratory (MFL) at the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), and the Precision Metrology Laboratory (PML) at the National Taiwan University (NTU) in Taiwan. In order to reduce the load for both computer and network, and for the sake of convenient communications and scanning of the details of the sample part, one computer was

dedicated to ISDN videoconferencing, while the other was used for application sharing and electronic whiteboards. The reason for using ISDN for videoconferencing is its popularity and economy, since, at present, only a few network services can provide a QoS of constant bandwidth. To study the feasibility of adopting the Internet for application sharing, this paper performs network analysis and evaluation of the Internet between NCKU and NTU, which is described in Section 5.2. The devices and software used for ISDN videoconferencing [19] include a PC, a high-resolution camera, a high-performance microphone, a PC-based CODEC card, an ISDN network card, and professional videoconference software developed by Visual Basic under an NT operation system environment. The application software sharing for a collaborative session on CAD/CAE/CAM engineering analysis and simulation adopted a remote control software pcANYWHERE [20] developed by SYMENTEC. An industrial example for turbine blade forgings and forging die electrode machining, as shown in Fig. 7, is used to illustrate the product development processes in applying the methodology of the remote collaborative forging engineering system. The collaborative discussion session on the simulation of the die lling condition and the material ow condition for the forged part is shown in Figs 7(a) and 7(b). The collaborative discussion session on the undercut problem of the die electrode is shown in Fig. 7(c); and cutting parameters are then adjusted to generate a new cutting tool path, as shown in Figs 7(d) and 7(e). A new die electrode machining part is then machined showing the improved cutting condition, as shown in Fig. 7(f).

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Fig. 6. System conguration.

5.2

Network Performance Analysis and Evaluation

The ISDN network service was provided by Chunghwa Telecom Company in Taiwan, and the Internet network service provider was TANet (Taiwan Academic Network). The medium of ISDN videoconferencing adopted in this paper has two lines with ISDN/BRI (basic rate interface) so that a constant bandwidth 256 Kbps (kilobits per second) is provided between NCKU and NTU. However, the performance of the Internet must be analysed and evaluated because of its unpredictable characteristics. Processes to analyse and evaluate the performance of the Internet are discussed as follows. The effects of queuing and dynamic routing are observed from MFL. The RTT (round trip time) for the connection was tested on a weekly basis. The presence of a congested link resulted in an unpredictable deferral of the packet transmission at the computer node. Since all Internet packets have a limited lifetime, when the deferral becomes too long, the data packet is eliminated and considered as lost. Generally, networking quality is related to RTT, packet loss and standard deviation.
5.3 Discussion

The methodology of IDEF0 and the CSCW concept have been used to analyse the information ow of a remote collaborative forging engineering system in this paper, as shown in Fig. 2,

so that the requirements (devices, members, constraints and knowledge) can be understood clearly for supporting the plan for implementing the proposed system process and constructing the framework, as shown in Figs 3 and 4. The framework of a remote collaborative forging engineering system proposed in this paper, as shown in Fig. 5, provides a new concept and viewpoint to accelerate product and process development and possesses scalability, exibility, and integrity for other cooperative engineering activities. It supports a practical and economical method to share hardware, software and knowledge for engineers in dispersed geographical locations. The evaluation of samples or prototypes requires a videoconferencing system with a high resolution and a stable transmission quality for video and audio so that ISDN is adopted for the networking to provide a constant 256 Kbps bandwidth. Since the Internet is the most economic choice for academics and enterprises for CSCW work and sharing global resources, it is used to bridge the CSCW work, providing an environment to evaluate collaboratively computer-aided engineering activities. The system conguration and framework proposed in this paper, as shown in Figs 5 and 6, therefore employ a hybrid networking system including ISDN and the Internet. Owing to the unreliable characteristics of the Internet, its performance has been analysed and evaluated before the practical application [21]. Therefore, adoption of a better QoS that is supported by the Internet service provider and net-provider will improve the results.

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Fig. 7. Snapshots to illustrate the application of the remote collaborative forging engineering system. (a) Discussion on the simulation of the die lling condition for the forged part. (b) Discussion on the simulation of the material ow condition (e.g. velocity, direction, etc.) for the forged part. (c) Discussion on the undercut problem for the machined part (die electrode). (d) Discussion on the resetting of the cutting parameters so as to generate a new cutting path. (e) Discussion on the simulation of the new cutting path. (f) Discussion on the improving condition for the new machined part (die electrode).

6.
6.1

Conclusions and Future Work

Conclusions

This paper presents a systematic approach towards the development of a remote collaborative forging engineering system for

a concurrent product and process development environment. Synergy of IDEF0 structural analysis methodology, multimedia and network techniques, CSCW methodology, the concurrent engineering concept, and forging engineering activities have been employed to develop a rational, extensive, practical, and real-time collaborative system for accelerating product and

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process development. An economic, practical, and efcient method has been proposed for constructing an environment conducive to remote collaborative forging engineering and resource sharing through the hybrid networking of the Internet and ISDN. Furthermore, network performance analysis and evaluation for the Internet has also been explored to provide a quantied reference basis before the execution of remote control algorithms between geographically dispersed locations. The proposed approach, methodology, and system framework are generic for other applications. The results of this research will facilitate rationalisation and synchronisation of new product and process development, and thus improve the efciency and quality of product development whilst reducing the cost.
6.2 Future work

Future work will focus on the following aspects: 1. Issues of collaborative design, analysis, and practical fabrication along with remote control and monitoring will be extended on the proposed remote collaborative forging engineering system. 2. Engineering activities will be analysed in more detail to identify the most necessary process for remote collaborative work. Thus, the priority for implementing concurrent product and process development can be ascertained using the most economic and effective strategy. 3. System infrastructure will be enhanced, and advanced network performance will be evaluated.
Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the National Science Council for support under grants NSC 892218-E-006061 for the National Cheng Kung University and NSC 892212-E-269 008 for the Far East College. Thanks are also extended L. W. Chen for his collaborative testing and to Professor Y. M. Chen, Enterprise Engineering and Integration Laboratory, Institute of Manufacturing Engineering at National Cheng Kung University, for his valuable suggestions; Professor K. C. Fan and his graduate student C. L. Chang, Precision Metrology Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering at National Taiwan University, for their collaborative testing.
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