EXPERIMENT NO.

6 FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM (FMS) & ITS CASE STUDY

1.

INTRODUCTION:

Technocrats see FMS as a business driven route to improved profitability through reduced lead times, rapid response to market conditions, increased flexibility and lower manning. FMS represents an emerging, new manufacturing technology an emerging, new manufacturing technology an increasing serous intent to improve factories. FMS is the most powerful manufacturing tool available today to improve industrys competitive position. The reputation of FMS rests on the skills of its application of FMS rests on the skills of its application FMS changes attitudes, in just the same way that needs a changed attitude to introduce it. Indian industries should accept that to remain competitive factories need to be very much different from that which they are today. For many the change will have to be fundamental. Industries have to reach out for the business advantages that new manufacturing technology can provide when properly applied. FMS is one of the most powerful new technologies available. In short term, FMS can help to remove existing bad and costly practices. For the longer term it is a move towards the integrated, automated factory. We cannot afford not to consider FMS even with its all complexities, FMS unshackles doormat machining capacity. Most of the time machine tools are under utilized or there is lack of qualified labour to operate and maintain machines, especially during second & third shifts frequently regarded as the unsocial hours of manufacturing. FMS provides the route to far greater machine utilization. In the ultimate, FMS is a major stepping stone to unmanned manufacturing.

1.
Flexible Manufacturing system (FMS) is a most modern & competitive manufacturing system which is a must for the twenty first century. FMS is about door - to- door management and not floor to floor times. FMS is a most important industrial application of Information Technology in Manufacturing area. FMS are computers with Intelligent hands enabling the implementation of the CIM concept on the shop floor. It has come in to existence since last two decades. At many places FMS is used as an Automated Manufacturing system (AMS) instead of real FMS. In todays competitive buyers market environment, there is an ample scope of FMS in India. There is much more to FMS than a mere buzz word image. FMS has been recognized by far sighted managers as an attractive vehicle to introduce radical change into manufacturing. Because much of todays metal manufacturing industry finds itself in the vast middle ground where it cannot effectively use the transfer line and dedicated manufacturing techniques which are so well suited to high volume low variety work. Present global need is to manifest the mid volume mid variety area of manufacturing and for that the only answer is FMS.

2.

MEANING OF FMS :

FMS are defined in many ways by different authors, some of them are given below : 1. United States Government : A series of automatic machine tools or items of fabrication equipment linked together with an automatic material handling system, a common hierarchical digital preprogrammed computer control and provision for random fabrication of parts or assemblies that fall within predetermined families. 2. Kearney and Trecker : A FMS is a group of CNC machine tools that can randomly process a group of parts having automated material handling and central computer control to dynamically balance resource utilization so that the system can adapt automatically to changes in parts production, mixes, and levels of output. 3. FMS is randomly loaded automated system based on group technology manufacturing linking integrated computer control and group of machine to automatically produce and handle (move) part for continuous serial processing. 4. FMS combines microelectronics and mechanical engineering to bring the economics of scale to batch work. A central on line computer controls the machine tools, other workstations, and the transfer of components and toolings. The computer also provides monitoring and information control. This combination of flexibility and overall control makes possible the production of a wide range of product in small numbers. 5. By definition an FMS can simultaneously process a variety of workpeices, using tooling and fixturing made available right machine, at the right time, and in the right sequence. The FMS computer functions to identify these needs and allocates resources in the form of tooling, fixture, material movements, and NC and inspection programs in order to fulfill predetermined work order requirements.

3.

COMPONENTS OF FMS :

The structure of an FMS represents the static aspect of the system while the operation describes its dynamic aspect. It consists of eight major components which are connected by two links, the physical link (material flow). The major components are: 1. CNC Machines : Machining centers, Turing centers, Grinding centers, Gear cutting Machine, sheet metal working Machine etc. 2. Work Transportation Device : In order to achieve a high degree of flexibility of material flow, it is useful to use individual conveyors. They have the advantage that they can follow a predetermined route without interfering with other vehicle. In overhead conveying system, electric suspension monorails are particularly suitable whereas in floor bound systems, Automated Guided vehicle (A.G.V) and Rail Guided Vehicles (R.G.V) are appropriate systems. These devices are used to carry parts between loading area and machining stations and also between machining stations. Tools can also be transported by these vehicles between Tool Room and machining Stations.

3. Material Handling Devices : The function of these devices is to transport work in process or tools to assigned position. Industrial Robots, Gantry Robots, computer controlled overhead cranes and conveyor & carrousels etc. are some of the devices used for this purpose. 4. Load / Unload Station : The raw material and/or finished parts are loaded/Unloaded in this area. Robot or human labour are used for this purpose. 5. Tool Room and Storage : These FMS facilities are usually located offine, Ready Tool magazines, Tool Kits or Tool Cartridges are transported to machining station by AGV. Tool storage, Tool preparation, Tool setting, Tool reconditioning and Tool refurbishing activities are handled by this section. 6. Auxiliary Equipment : Pallet Parking Stations, Automatic cleaning / washing line, On line inspection equipment, Automated Measuring equipment, automatic swarf management etc. 7. Automatic Storage & Retrieval System (AS/RS): Ready components, raw materials, toolings, fixtures etc. are automatically stored & retrieved as per program. 8. System Controllers : FMS host computer, scheduling software, simulation software, DNC software etc.

4.

TYPES OF FMS
1.

Flexible Manufacturing Unit (FMU) : It is stand alone CNC Machine,

generally Machining center or Turning center with Automatic Tool changing facility. Loading/Unloading is generally manual. It has many advance features for flexible machining. It is a module for FMS.

2.

Flexible Manufacturing Cell (FMC) : It is a logical arrangement of

automated stand alone CNC Machines with automatic tools and work transfer systems to process a part family. It consists of minimum one to maximum three CNC Machines with automatic work transfer facility from any machine to any machine.

3.

Flexible transfer lines (FTL) : It generally take one of two forms either
robots carrying out a process linked by a conveyor or pallet shuttle, or machining centers linked in a similar way. The components in a system always move along the same part FLT usually has limited product variety and is often encountered in automotive applications. They can be reconfigured for another family of components by reprogramming the individual machines and by modifications of the fixturing, allowing the system to manufacture a new generation of products. In FTL CNC automated machines are used as a module machine.

4.

Pallatech flexible Manufacturing Cell : It consits of two or three stand

alone CNC Machines, One Rail Guided Vehicle and 20 to 40 Pallet parking stations. To increase the production and variety of products. Machining centers and pallet stokers can be increase later on.

5.

Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) : It consist of three more machining

centers, turning centers, fabrication center, or the like machines, equipped with

flexible automatic loading/unloading/transfer device and a method of monitoring tool conditions and replacements the entire production scheduling and machining process is automatically supervised by a computer system. Maximum numbers of CNC Machines in FMS are generally ten. It uses A.G.V., R.G.V., or Robot or combination of these for material transfer and equipped with AS/RS system. FMS is cluster of many FMU or FMC. FMS can be classified in various ways (e.g. Kusiak 1985). A widely recognized classification of FMS characterized them as being Dedicate or Random. A Dedicated FMS employs a set of general or special purpose machines, an automated material handling system, part specific pallet fixture and magazines, with a fixed set of general purpose machines, an automated material handling system, modular pallet fixtures, and an automated tool loading system. It is capable of producing a large family of widely differing parts. The product mix is not completely specified and the production schedule is subject to frequent changes.

5.

BENEFITS OF FMS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Reduced plant size 40% floor area saving. Lead time Reduction by 45% increase in Machine utilization by 40% Reduction in inventory and work in progress (WIP) by 60% Increased productivity. Decreased in production costs by 40% Reduction in labours by 50 to 60% 100% inspection, thus increasing the quality of product. A batch size of one also can be handled economically. Reduction in setting time. Shorter delivery time. Quicker response to market change. Unmanned operations during night shifts. Real time control of components. Reduced overhead costs.

FMS must be considered because it brings with it many fundamental business advantages. That is why the need to install FMS must be business driven and not based on technological whims. The commanding advantage of FMS is the ability to respond to customer needs ahead of competition, consistently, economically and predictably.

6.

KEY FACTORS AFFECTING FMS INSTALLATION

Medium variety medium batch production. Frequent changes in products/parts.

Frequent and high variations in the demand or component batch size. More number of setup changes. Possibility for grouping of components as per Group Technology concept. Long work piece machining cycle. Machining needed in the single setup. Limited factory floor space. Fast response to prototypes and new products. More number of operations in single component. Shorter delivery times.

7.

FMS IN INDIA

Following details pertains to the status of FMS in various organization in India. The details have been obtained by either personal visits or through other means. (1) Hindustan Motors Ltd., Power Unit Plant, Indore.

Make Cincinnati Milacrom, U.K.

1-Machining Centre, 2-A.W.C., 3 R.G.V. 4-load stration, 6 Pallets, 7 FMS controller. It consists of 6 nos. Horizontal Machining Centres, 1 RGV, 2 Load/Unload stations and 2 Parking stations. Cylinder Block machining of ISUZU engine has been done here. It was installed in 1990. (2) Central Manufacturing Technology Institute, Bangalore. This is a central Govt. Institute doing consultancy work of Industries and has MAZAK, Japans FMS. It consist of 2 nos. of Horizontal machining Centres, 1 no. AGV, 1 nos. Load/Unload station, 12 fixed Pallet Parking station, central host FMS controller and ZOLLER tol management system. It issued for heavy and complex job work. They also provide FMS training facilities for Industrial personal.

(3) PMT Automatics Ltd., Pimpri, Pune, They are having MAZAK, Japan FMS. It consists of 2 nos. Horizontal Machining Centers, One Robot, Job Conveyor and FMS Host controller. They are manufacturing various m/c tool components on their FMS. (4) TELCO, Pimpri, Pune They purchased second hand German FMS and did re-conditioning in their M/c Tool Division. It consists of 6 nos. of Horizontal Machining Center, one RGV, parking stations, load/unload stations and FMS host controller. They are manufacturing automobile components on regular basis. (5) Heavy Vehicle Factory, Avadi, Chennai. HMT FMS was installed in 1998. It consists of 4 nos. of Horizontal Machining Centres, 1 no. RGV with 500 meters long part, 2 nos. of Load/Unload stations, 24 nos. Fixed Pallet Parking stations and one Host FMS controller 486 PC with C-DOS Operating system. Tool ID and Pallet ID Syustem is Balluff make. Tool Monitoring System have adaptive control for tool wear compensation. It has LAN system for total FMS control and on line scheduling is possible in this FMS. All machining centers have 1250. Each Machining Centre has its own Tool magazine & ATC, over & abhove each M/c has nearby 3 axes area for 240 tools storage. Each M/c is having a Gantry Robot which transfers the tools from tools storage area to Tool Magazine & vice versa. The Gantry Robots are Rino Berardi make & has 880 M controllers.

1- Machining Centre, 2 Robot, 3 Tool Storage, 4 R.G.V, 5 Load Station, 6 Controller, 7 Pallet 6. Heavy Alloy Penetration Project (HAPP) Trichy : This is a biggest FMS running in India and was supplied by HMT in 1989. It consists of 8 nos. SB CNC 35 HMT make Turning Centres, 3 nos. BT Carrago, Sweden make AGV, each Turning Center have FELSOMAT, Germany make 2 axes Linear Gantry Robot having 810 T SGP, Australia make controller. Each Turning Centre have 16 tool Turret. Over and above this 3 out of 8 Turning Centres have additional 48 tools capacity drum with ATC. ATC will transfer the required tool between tool Turret & Drum. Complete Tool Management System is WIDIA make. FMS Host Controller is Honnnewell, USA make and offline work can also be done. There is one Load/Unload station. Nearby one charging station and will get connected automatically for battery charging purpose. Out of three, one AGV will be always at charging station. According to program AGV will transfer the Cart (Full of jobs) from M/c to M/c. Gantry make FMS in their Trichy Plant

(7) HMT, Pinjore, Machine Tool Division. They are having their own make FMS. It consists of 2 nos. Horizontal Machining

1-Turning Centre, 2-Robot, 3-Tool Room, 4-R.G.V. 5- Load stations, 6-Conntroller Centres and 1 no. RGV. Three Hinumerik Controllers are used in this FMS One more FMS of similar type is running at HmT, Pinjore, Tractor Division. (8) Kirloskar Cummins Ltd., Pune. They are having MAZAK FMS.

(9) Widia India Ltd., Banglore. : They are having WIDMA make FMS installed in 1995. It is used for various cutting tool Holders and there are lot of varieties of components. WIDMA is a M/c Tool Division of WIDIA. WIDMA FMS consists of 3 nos. Horizontal Machining Centres and 1 no. RGV Scheduling & Simulation purpose.

8.A

THE CONCEPT OF MANUFACTURING FLEXIBILITIES

Flexibility of a system is its adaptability to a wide range of possible environments that it may encounter. A flexible system must be capable of changing in order to deal with a changing environment. Flexibility in manufacturing means being able to reconfigure manufacturing resources so as to produce efficiently different products of acceptable quality. With regard to environment uncertainties, it should be understood that manufacturing flexibility is required in order for a firm to cope with both internal changes and external forces. The internal disturbances for which flexibility is useful include equipment breakdowns, variable task times, queuing delays, rejects, and rework. External forces refer largely to the fundamental uncertainties of the competitive environment. These uncertainties may be current or potential. Moreover, their probabilistic nature may not always be known. Uncertainty may exist for level of demand, product process, product mix and availability of resources. Uncertainties may arise out of actions of competitors, changing consumer preferences, technological innovations, new regulation, etc.

Flexibility is a major factor for increasing the competitiveness of a manufacturing system Flexibility is defined as the sensitivity of the manufacturing system to change. Flexibility in manufacturing system can take many forms, the most important batch sizes and types of product. Dictionaries tend to define flexibility as the ability to be bent. It is one of the four major objectives that a production manager might have when selecting the equipment and configuration of a manufacturing system, the other three being cost, quality and delivery performance. Bahrami stated that the meaning of flexibility varies according to situation. On one side, flexibility means being agile and versatile, while on the other side, flexibility refers to qualities such as robustness or resilience which enable an enterprise to endure when negatively affected by changes. 15 years ago, quality was much like flexibility is today ; vague and difficult to improve yet critical to competitiveness flexibility is only beginning to be explored. It means different things to different people. Flexibility is a property of the system that indicates the systems potential behavior, rather than its performance. As the various flexibility type definitions indicate, flexibility is not a self contained concept; it needs to be applied to other production objective such as products, volume and quality. Also time and cost are two dominant factors in the evaluation of flexibility. Flexibility to some manufactures means convertibility being able to convert from manufacturing one product type, family, and / or volume to another within the manufactures predetermined time. Flexibility can mean future cost avoidance.

8.B
Flexibility is the ability of the system to cope with internal disturbances and external environment changes with titles or zero penalty in cost, time, effort or performance. Creating hardware and software for FMS is a major challenge in itself. Individual pieces of hardware in FMS are not flexible and software can do only what it is programmed to do. Flexibility is forced in to the FMS by its creators, right down from the detail of Machine Tool design, AS/RS design, Material Handling system design, Fixture & Pallet design, Cutting rates and swarf disposal, Tool Management system design, use of adaptive controls and so on till unmanned machining. To designs FMS, first various flexibilities needed are to be selected and accordingly designed so that tailor made FMS can be built.

9.

VARIOUS FLEXIBILITIES ASSOCIATED WITH FMS 1. Machine flexibility

Machine Flexibility refers to the various types of operations that the machine can perform without requiring a prohibitive effort in switching from one operation to another.

2. Material Handling Flexibility

Flexibility of a material handling system is its ability to move different part types efficiently for ability to move different part types effective for proper positioning and processing through the manufacturing facility it serves.

3. Operations Flexibility
Operation flexibility of a part refers to its ability to be produced in different ways. Operation flexibility is a property of the part, and means that the part can be produced with alternate process plans, where a process plan means a sequence of operations required to produce the part.

4. Process Flexibility
Process flexibility of a manufacturing system relates to the set of part types that the system can produce without major setups.

5. Product Flexibility
Product flexibility is the ease with which new part can be added or substituted for existing parts. In other words, product flexibility is the ease with which the part mix currently being produced can be changed inexpensively and rapidly.

6. Routing Flexibility
Routing flexibility of a manufacturing system is its ability to produce a part by alternate routes through the system. Alternate routes may use different machines, different operations, or different sequences of operations.

7. Volume Flexibility
Volume flexibility of a manufacturing system is its ability to be operated profitably at different overall output levels. Note that only feasible output levels are under consideration here.

8. Expansion Flexibility
Expansion flexibility of a manufacturing system is the ease with which its capacity and capability can be increased when needed. The capacity is in terms of output rate per unit time, whereas capability refers to such characteristics as quality the technology state other types of flexibility, etc.

9. Program Flexibility
Program flexibility is the ability of the system to run virtually unattended for a long enough period. Unattended operation during the second and third shifts has been found to be extremely important.

10. Production Flexibility

Production flexibility is the universe of part types that the manufacturing system can produce without adding major capital equipment.

11. Market Flexibility

It is defined as the ease with which the manufacturing system can adapt to changing market environment. Market flexibility is the ease with which the manufacturing system can adapt to a changing market environment.

10.

CASE STUDY

Hindustan Motors Limited is one of the oldest and pioneer manufacture of cars in India. In their Engine plant at Pithampur, Indore, they are having CINCINNATI MILACRON FMS installed in 1990. The Configuration of this FMS is as shown in fig. Complete machining of two types of C.I. Cylinder Blocks of ISUZU Engine are done on FMS. There are total 96 machining operations in Diesel Block and 98 operations in Petrol Block. Both blocks are almost similar except the Diesel block height is 30 mm more and locations of some of the holes/taps are different. Complete machining of block is divided into three part i.e. OP 10, OP 20 and OP 50.

OPERATION 10 : There are total 44 operations of Diesel block and 35 operation of Petrol
block. The raw unmachined C.I. block is clamped on fixture in horizontal position keeping the crankshaft bores outside. In FMS there are total 12 pallets are similar and of size 630 X 630 mm. Area. For different operations there are separate fixtures. For OP 10 there are 5 fixtures, for OP 20 there are 4 fixtures and for OP 50 there are 3 fixtures. OP 10 includes rough & finish mill of three sides of body, various drilling, tapping & spot face operations on three faces, rough machining of crank bore and finish machining of various thrust faces of crank bores. The machining cycle time for OP 10 of Diesel block is 47 minutes and of Petrol block is 40 minutes.

OPERATION 20 : In Op 20 there are 32 operations in Diesel block and 36 operations in

Petrol block. The block is mounted and clamped on OP 20 fixture in vertical position keeping crank bores inside. OP 20 includes milling of remaining three sides of block, various drilling tapping and chamfer operations on three faces, Dia. 81 rough boring of 4 cylinder bores etc. The machining cycle time for OP 20 is 42 minutes for Diesel block and 40.5 minutes for Petrol block.

OPERATION 50 : This is the finish operation. 5 Nos. half-bearing caps of crankshaft

bearing are fitted in cylinder block before starting of OP 50. In OP 50 there are 20 operations in Diesel block and 27 operations in Petrol block. The block is mounted and clamped on OP 50 fixture in horizontal position keeping the crank bore outside. OP 50 includes semifinish & finish of 5 crank bores, semi finish of cylinder bores, finish of various oil pump holes, finish of various

dowel holes etc. The machining cycle time for OP 50 is 32 minutes for Diesel block and 36 minutes for Petrol block. Here all FMS operations are completed. Hereafter surface grinding, Honning, washing and leak testing operations are done in the same cell and so cylinder block is now ready for assembly.