Professional Documents
Culture Documents
net/publication/257494565
CITATIONS READS
3 386
3 authors:
Johan Stahre
Chalmers University of Technology
114 PUBLICATIONS 1,563 CITATIONS
SEE PROFILE
Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:
All content following this page was uploaded by Mats Peter Winroth on 10 October 2018.
Abstract
Automation is a way to improve competitiveness. Previous studies have shown that best results of automation
decisions are reached if decisions are integrated in the company’s manufacturing strategy. Automation deci-
sions comprise much more than just the very choice to automate and many aspects need to be taken into ac-
count. In this article, we describe new demands that are raised on the strategy process when automation is in-
tegrated in the manufacturing strategy. Furthermore, the implementation of automation strategies calls for a
number of issues to take into consideration.
Keywords:
Automation strategies, manufacturing strategies, process
Product demand
neously. production
5. Increased flexibility. The main purpose of this strategy is
to reduce setup time and programming time for the manu- Manual
production
facturing equipment. This is achieved by using the same
equipment for many different work pieces. This leads to
higher utilization of the equipment and is applicable when
there is a large variety of products which normally leads to
a job shop layout.
One-station One-station Connected stations
6. Improved material handling and storage. Introducing cells cells
automated material handling and storage systems is often
a good effort that can lead to reduction of work-in-process Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3 Time
and shortening manufacturing lead time.
Figure 3: A typical automation migration strategy, adopted
7. On-line inspection. Quality inspection after the process, from [19].
which is normally the case, leads to that the process is
already finished. Integrating inspection into the process This model suits however not all situations in manufactur-
itself enables taking corrective actions directly as the proc- ing companies. It is suitable only to manufacturing of prod-
ess is being performed. It leads to reduced scrap rate and ucts with very long product life cycles, where it is worth the
improvement of the overall product quality. effort to change the way of producing. It is also necessary
to prepare the product for automated production or other-
8. Process control and optimization. Different control wise the product has to be revised.
schemes help to operate processes and related equip-
ment. Process times are reduced and product quality im- The next chapter presents some of the empirical findings
proved. One example of a commonly used tool is statistical relevant to automation strategies.
process control, SPC. 6 EMPIRICAL FINDINGS
9. Plant operations control. Control at the plant level aims The Delphi-study that was carried out among Swedish
at managing and coordinating aggregate operations more SMEs gave various results. Most companies emphasized
efficiently. This usually implies a considerable use of com- the importance of having an automation strategy that forms
puter networking and links to enterprise resource planning the base for investing in new production equipment.
systems, ERP. The driving forces for automation are mainly productivity,
10. Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM). If the previ- with better financial outcome as the main objective, and
ous strategy is further developed, we reach an integration ergonomic reasons. Improved competitiveness, as a con-
of factory operations and engineering design and business sequence of cost reductions, is regarded highly important.
functions. Computer applications are widely used; including Another important issue is the possibility to increase pro-
data bases and enterprise wide computer networks. duction volumes on the same premises.
These strategies form a checklist that can help companies The most important problems with automation were:
in their automation projects. Multiple strategies may apply • Adapting the product to automation
for most situations. The most important issue is however to
decide what level of automation is suitable depending on • The high number of different products and vari-
the existing situation and conditions. ants
Groover [19] also presents a specific automation migration • Problems to get the money back from the invest-
strategy, which describes the implementation of automa- ment
tion during the various product lifecycle phases, figure 3. • The lack of competence at shop floor level
The purpose is to shorten the time for introducing the
The respondents considered automation to be not suitable
product to the market. Thus, during the first phase the
in the following cases:
manufacturing is performed manually. The tooling and
equipment is fairly low cost. If the product is a hit on the • When ramping up manufacturing of new products
market, each cell can be transformed into automated cells • During manufacturing of a large variety of prod-
and, during the last phase, the high volume is met by con- ucts and variants in small volumes
necting the stations together into a continuous flow with
highly integrated automated cells. • If the product life cycle is very short
The advantages of the automation migration strategy of fig • If the product needs e.g. visual inspection
3 are mainly: On the question about when it would be relevant to take
• Short product introduction times. variable levels of automation into consideration, the re-
spondents answered:
• Gradual introduction of automation.
• To increase flexibility
• It allows the company to postpone high invest-
ment cost when introducing products with an un- • To facilitate ramp-ups and change-overs
certain market forecast. • To handle disturbances
• To improve system robustness
• To reduce production cost
• To improve productivity
Finally, the question about on what grounds automation
decisions should be made got the following answers:
• On financial grounds
• Based on demands for productivity improvement The conditions for automation strategy implementation
vary depending on what kind of manufacturing process the
• On quality demands
company has. We have detected major differences be-
• On working environment demands tween companies with highly advanced continuous produc-
• On production capacity demands tion lines, for a limited number of products and variants,
and companies with batch flow layouts, producing a large
In the DYNAMO-project, a large number of interviews and product variety in smaller volumes with more general pur-
case studies at the companies that are partners in the pose machines. The continuous lines need to be run in full
project have been carried out. The most striking finding is speed almost from the beginning since balancing does not
the very different opinion about automation and also the match at lower speeds. This makes simulation and off-line
use of variable or dynamic levels of automation. It seems testing very important tools. A discontinuous flow makes it
like the companies that act as subcontractors to many possible to test each cell isolated from the rest of the pro-
customers, thus having more general purpose equipment, duction, which limits the disturbances on the output.
are more willing to accept that it is possible to change the
level of automation. The companies that invest large 8 IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTITIONERS
amounts of money into highly specialized equipment in- The results from the DYNAMO project need to be further
cluding tooling and fixtures are more reluctant to the possi- developed into useful tools for practitioners involved in
bilities. They plan for a specific level of automation from automation projects. We do, however, see a large potential
the start and everything is locked until they change product for industrial purposes if companies can adopt a less rigid
or product platform. This is mostly applicable to automation view on automation.
of the mechanical tasks. It may be more interesting to be 9 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
able to change the level of automation of the information &
control tasks. Possibility to override the automatic control This research is funded by the Swedish Foundation for
system during ramp-up could be applicable. The compa- Strategic Research in the project DYNAMO – Dynamic
nies were, however, not aware of this view since they Level of Automation. Research partners are Chalmers
mostly discuss and think on automation as physical task University of Technology, School of Engineering at
allocation. Jönköping University, and The Swedish Institute for Indus-
trial Research – IVF. A total of eight manufacturing com-
Another opinion that was put forward was that increasing panies are partners in the project and they represent large
the level of automation is not always to prefer. If the avail- companies and SMEs as well as different industrial sectors
ability is optimum, increasing the level of automation may such as the wood and furniture industry, industrial automa-
make the system more vulnerable, thus reducing the avail- tion, metal machining, and automotive industry.
ability and up-time.
10 REFERENCES
Other companies have the straightforward automation
strategy to automate as much as possible, no matter the [1] Sheridan, T.B., 2002, Humans and Automation: Sys-
cost. A large company within the consumer electronics tem Design and Research Issues, Wiley series in
business invested in highly automated final assembly lines. System Engineering and Management.
The industrial engineers did not even have to justify the [2] Hoffmann, C., Orr, S., 2005, Advanced Manufacturing
investment financially. The company did not have enough Technology Adoption – The German experience,
competence to install and start production, so they hired Technovation, Vol. 25, pp. 711-724.
consultants for a long period of time. The problems still [3] Säfsten, K., Winroth, M., Stahre, J, 2005, The content
remained and after a short while the equipment was re- and process of automation strategies, 18th Interna-
moved and the company went back to manual assembly. tional Conference on Production Research, July 31. –
This is an example where the company’s capabilities did August 4., Salerno, Italy.
not correspond to the complexity of the new system.
[4] Hayes, R.H., Wheelwright, S.C., 1984, Restoring Our
7 DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS Competitive Edge: Competing Through Manufactur-
Many companies make very large investments in highly ing, Wiley, NY, USA.
sophisticated and automatic manufacturing systems, with- [5] Swink, M., Way, M.H., 1995, Manufacturing Strategy:
out knowing if the investment is suitable, or even possible. Propositions, current research, renewed directions,
With a better decision support tool, companies could get a International Journal of Operations & Production
better match between possible and desirable investments. Management 15(1), 4-26.
They could also see when it is time to abandon continuous
improvement of the existing equipment and go for larger [6] Linstone, H.A., Turoff, M., 2002, The Delphi Method –
changes of their operations. Techniques and Applications, New Jersey Institute of
Technology, web-version downloaded from
7.1 Content http://www.is.njit.edu/pubs/delphibook, first printed in
It has been noticed during several case studies that auto- 1975.
mation involves more than just the process technology. [7] Granell, V., Frohm, J., Winroth, M., 2006, Controlling
Other functions, such as quality management, human Levels of Automation – A model for identifying manu-
resources, supply, capacity, facilities, and organization, are facturing parameters, 9th IFAC Symposium on Auto-
affected by such a decision. On the other hand they also mated Systems Based on Human Skill and Knowl-
form the input when making the decision. Thus, automation edge, Nancy, France, May 22.-24.
strategy is a part of the manufacturing strategy and a profil- [8] ManVis Report No 3, 2005, Manufacturing Visions –
ing of the capabilities is desirable to detect mismatches Integrating Diverse Perspectives into Pan-European
and identify suitable changes. Foresight (ManVis), Delphi Interpretation Report, De-
7.2 Process liverable D15, contract no NMP2-CT-2003-507139-
MANVIS
The formulation of the automation strategy needs to be
designed as a continuous loop covering market require- [9] Winroth, M., Säfsten, K., Stahre, J., 2006, Automa-
ments, existing equipment and routines as well as other tion strategies – existing theory or ad hoc decisions?
manufacturing capabilities of the company. International Journal of Manufacturing Technology
and Manufacturing, Forhcoming.
[10] Bellgran, M., Säfsten, K., 2005, Produktionsutveck-
ling – Utveckling och drift av produktionssystem, Stu-
dentlitteratur, Lund, Sweden (in Swedish).
[11] Hill, T.J., 1994, Manufacturing strategy: Text and
Cases, Irwin, Homewood, IL, USA.
[12] Platts, K.W., Gregory, M.J., 1992, A manufacturing
audit approach to strategy formulation, in Voss, C.A.
(ed.) Manufacturing strategy: Process and content,
Chapman & Hall, London, UK.
[13] Skinner, W., 1969, Manufacturing – Missing link in
corporate strategy, Harvard Business Review, May-
June.
[14] Skinner, W., 1992, Missing the links in manufacturing
strategy, in Voss, C.A. (ed.) Manufacturing strategy:
Process and content, Chapman & Hall, London, UK.
[15] Roth, A.V., Giffi, C.A., Seal, G.M., 1992, Operating
strategies for the 1990:s elements comprising world-
class manufacturing, in Voss, C.A. (ed.) Manufactur-
ing strategy: Process and content, Chapman & Hall,
London, UK, pp. 133-165.
[16] Slack, N., Lewis, M., 2002, Operations Strategy,
Prentice Hall, UK.
[17] Miltenburg, J., 1995, Manufacturing Strategy – How
to formulate and implement a winning plan, Productiv-
ity Press, Portland, Oregon, USA.
[18] Säfsten, K., Winroth, M., 2002, Analysis of the con-
gruence between manufacturing strategy and produc-
tion system in SMME, Computers in Industry, No 49,
pp. 91-106.
[19] Groover, M.P., 2001, Automation, Production Sys-
tems, and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 2nd
ed, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, USA.