Agile and Lean manufacturing in CIM

Agile manufacturing is a term applied to an organization that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality.

An enabling factor in becoming an agile manufacturer has been the development of manufacturing support technology that allows the marketers, the designers and the production personnel to share a common database of parts and products, to share data on production capacities and problems — particularly where small initial problems may have larger downstream effects.

It is a general proposition of manufacturing that the cost of correcting quality issues increases as the problem moves downstream, so that it is cheaper to correct quality problems at the earliest possible point in the process.

Agile manufacturing is a term applied to an organization that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality.

An enabling factor in becoming an agile manufacturer has been the development of manufacturing support technology that allows the marketers, the designers and the production personnel to share a common database of parts and products, to share data on production capacities and problems — particularly where small initial problems may have larger downstream effects.

It is a general proposition of manufacturing that the cost of correcting quality issues increases as the problem moves downstream, so that it is cheaper to correct quality problems at the earliest possible point in the process.

Agile manufacturing is seen as the next step after Lean manufacturing in the evolution of production methodology. The key difference between the two is like between a thin and an athletic person, agile being the latter. One can be neither, one or both. In manufacturing theory, being both is often referred to as leagile.

According to Martin Christopher, when companies have to decide what to be, they have to look at the Customer Order Cycle (the time the customers are willing to wait) and the leadtime for getting supplies. If the supplier has a short lead time, lean production is possible. If the COC is short, agile production is beneficial.

Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply "lean", is a systematic method for the elimination of waste ("Muda") within a manufacturing process. Lean also takes into account waste created through overburden ("Muri") and waste created through unevenness in work loads ("Mura"). Working from the perspective of the client who consumes a product or service, "value" is any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Essentially, lean is centered on making obvious what adds value by reducing everything else.

Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as

"lean" only in the 1990s TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota

seven wastes to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker, has focused attention on how it has achieved this success.

Agile manufacturing;

Agile manufacturing is a term applied to an organization that has created the processes, tools, and training to enable it to respond quickly to customer needs and market changes while still controlling costs and quality.

An enabling factor in becoming an agile manufacturer has been the development of manufacturing support technology that allows the marketers, the designers and the production personnel to share a common database of parts and products, to share data on production capacities and problems — particularly where small initial problems may have larger downstream effects. It is a general proposition of manufacturing that the cost of correcting quality issues increases as the problem moves downstream, so that it is cheaper to correct quality problems at the earliest possible point in the process.

Lean manufacturing ;

Lean manufacturing, Lean Enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "lean", is a production philosophy that considers the expenditure of resources in any aspect other than the direct creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the client who consumes a product or service,

"value" is any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for.

Direct digital control (DDC);

is the automated control of a condition or process by a digital device (computer). DDC is considered by many to be a more modern, granular and responsive update to older HVAC control systems based upon PLC technologies. In those older PLC based systems, each zone was self-sufficient and contained all of the instrumentation and control elements needed to consider analog and digital inputs and then take actions according to rules. The complexity came from the desire to expand these 'zones' from a few dozen points and a handful of controlled elements to much broader building-wide systems.

Connecting PLCs together becomes complex, and the creation of rules which would be loaded individually into each PLC impractical.

DDC on the other hand takes a more centralized network-oriented approach. All instrumentation is gathered by various analog and digital converters which use the network to transport these signals to the central controller.

The centralized computer then follows all of its production rules (which may incorporate sense points anywhere in the structure) and causes actions to be sent via the same network to valves, actuators, and other HVAC components that can be adjusted.

Central controllers and most terminal unit controllers are programmable, meaning the direct digital control program code may be customized for the intended use. The program features include time schedules, setpoints, controllers, logic, timers, trend logs, and alarms.

The unit controllers typically have analog and digital inputs, that allow measurement of the variable (temperature, humidity, or pressure) and analog and digital outputs for control of the medium (hot/cold water and/or steam). Digital inputs are typically (dry) contacts from a control device, and analog inputs are typically a voltage or current measurement from a variable (temperature, humidity, velocity, or pressure) sensing device.

Digital outputs are typically relay contacts used to start and stop equipment, and analog outputs are typically voltage or current signals to control the movement of the medium (air/water/steam) control devices. Usually abbreviated as "DDC".

It is the automated control of a condition or process by a digital device (computer).

A very early example of a DDC system meeting the above requirements was completed by the Australian business Midac in 1981-1982 using R-Tec Australian designed hardware.

Basically, lean manufacturing technique consists of four steps. First step is to realize that there are wastes in the system to be removed. Although this seems like a crazy idea, this is the step which creates the requirement for the movement towards lean manufacturing.

Many organizations do not realize that they have tons of hidden wastes with them. Therefore they do not have the requirement to remove them from the system. So they will have their problems forever and they will try to find solutions for these problems forever.

The End

ME2402 – Computer Integrated Manufacturing Question Bank

UNIT – I – COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN