Manufacturing Systems

and Computers
Prof Pradip Kumar Ray
Professor
Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
• Manufacturing creates between 60 to 80% of the real wealth of the
major industrialized countries.
• Most of the countries have numerous industry and government
supported programs to increase manufacturing productivity.
• Within the last six decades, there have been many important
innovations in the development of new design aids, manufacturing
processes, engineering materials, and manufacturing systems.
• With conventional production know-how, it becomes increasingly
difficult and expensive to improve manufacturing processes.
• The computer offers possibilities for improving the manufacturing
technology in many areas.
• Computers can directly control production and quality control
equipment and quickly adapt themselves to changing customer orders
and new products.
• They make possible the instant evaluation of data to assess the flow of
information in the plant and to initiate immediate corrective action.
• They optimize the manufacturing process by their capability to
integrate the entire manufacturing system.
• Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) comprises product
design, production planning, production control, production
processes, quality control, production equipment, and plant
facilities.
• The creation of the product starts in the design department, where
its function, physical design and manufacturing methods and
processes are established.
• Upon completion of the design activities, 70% of the manufacturing
costs have been pre-determined.
• This fact stresses the importance of combining design and
manufacturing in a comprehensive CIM system.
Three Basic Types of Manufacturing and
Role of Automation.
• Manufacturing is taking raw materials and transforming them into
something that has greater value.
• Manufacturing can be broken down into three basic types :
1. Continuous Processing,
2. Custom or Job Shop
3. Batch Processing.
1. Continuous Processing
 A Continuous processing operation takes the raw materials and
processes them into finished product with very little, if any, work-in-
process.
 An oil refinery or a chemical plant is an example.
 These are characterized by very costly equipment and few
operators.
 They are also highly instrumented in that 10% to 20% of the capital
equipment is in instrumentation.
 They are fully automated. The instruments are connected to the
actuating mechanisms. such as valves, and so control the process.
For some time, continuous processing has been computer
controlled, and the computers are integrated.
The terminology for CIM in these industries is ‘distributed systems’.
2. Custom or Job Shop Manufacturing
 At the other end of the spectrum is the custom job shop or build-
to-order company.
 This type of operation either uses very high technology and makes
specialized products like gauges or is an artisan type of business,
such as making custom executive furniture.
 Although these companies know how to use computers and could
integrate the manufacturing, such a move is not cost justified.
 A high technology, specialized company that does a great deal of
engineering design would most likely use a computer to aid them in
design and engineering, but not in the actual manufacturing.
 Computed-aided design is called CAD and computer-aided
engineering is called CAE.
 Costs and pricing in the custom job shop reflect the expertise and
talent of the principals, and there is not much need for CIM.
3. Batch Processing
 The bulk of manufactured goods are fabricated on a batch basis.
 Each fabricated part is then assembled with other fabricated parts
into subassemblies , which are further assembled, and so on.
 An assembly usually cannot begin until all the parts are on hand
and ready.
 All fabricated parts remain as WIP until the last part is ready and
the assembly is ready.
 At this point, the product passes to the finished good status.
 It is desirable to reduce assembly time from 10 hours to 2 hours, for
example, but it is absolutely necessary to reduce part fabrication
from 14 weeks to 1 week.
 CIM finds widest potential applicability in a manufacturing
environment that is producing products on a batch basis.
 Operation
Raw Vendor Engineering Accounting
Material Parts CAD Inv.control
Purchasing
Smart
Warehouse

DATA Inspection
MANAGEMENT packaging
SYSTEM
shipping

Parts
Manufacturing Assembly
CNC robotic cells
Machine cells

Fig.1. Computer Integrated Manufacturing

Type of Process
Primary Motivation
Part Variety
Flexibility of machine tools
Flexibility to change to a
completely different part
Flexibility to change to
similar, but different part
Flexibility to change of
materials
Flexibility of plant layout
Fig.2 Flexibility of Piece, Batch, and Mass-Production Systems
Piece Batch Mass
Ability Flexibility Volume & cost minimization
Many diff. shapes & sizes Mostly similar in shape, type of Essentially identical parts with
materials few processes and materials
High-can combine several Medium-limited to part family, Low- usually only minor
processes in one machine and can change tools, speeds, feeds changes in speeds feeds or
vary each process and dimensions. part dimensions.
Yes Possible Impossible
Yes Yes, if previously planned Very limited
Yes Limited Extremely Limited
Smaller machine tools can be Some flexibility, but difficult to Carefully planned, but not
added install new machines in system. flexible, not usually possible
to install new machines in
system.
 Fixed automation
Parts per year
15000
Production Volume

50
Flexible
automation

15
Pro
au gram
tom m
1 ati able Number of different
on
1 3 9 30 100 1000 parts

The chart shows the relationships of fixed automation, programmable automation, and flexible
automation as a function of production volume and product variety batch basis.
Fig.3 Automation and Product Characteristics
Role of Automation
• As we move to larger and larger batch sizes, it pays for us to use more and
more hard automation.
• Hard automation refers to a piece of equipment dedicated to a particular part
and process.
• A crankshaft fabrication line in an engine plant uses a great deal of hard
automation, as does a beer bottling plant.
• Although these machines are fast and efficient, reprogrammability is not one
of their hallmarks.
• Even so, tasks such as infeed and outfeed are usually under computer
supervision.
• The line between hard and soft (Computer-controlled) automation is, at best,
fuzzy.
• These are installations using computer controlled robots for which the
programs, machine settings, and tooling have not been changed in three years.