CIM 1: Manufacturing Systems

Flexible Manufacturing Systems:

 Unattended Work Stations
 Flexible Machining Cells (FMC)
 Flexible Machining Systems (FMS)

Multi-cell FMS – Flexible Machining Systems

Modern FMCs -Flexible Machining Cells

Future AM FMCs

the three things you need to consider:

 Product Characteristics:
o Material
o Tolerances
o Shape
o size
Production Volume
Production Volume
production variety
production rate

Volume variety graph:

The batch production size of the industry is enormous because it covers a wide range of
batch sizes – batches of 20,100,500, 10000
It is more versatile

3 types of production:
o Stock replenishment
o You have a level of stock that you maintain, when stock is low an economic
batch quanitity is built to replenish the stock
o Production to order
o Parts not in stock, have to be ordered once order is received
o Assemble to order
o Parts are already in stock, you just assemble when order is received
Types of layouts / systems:
o Fixed position layout
o Product stays fixed and the processes are brought to it – ex: ship
o Product flow layout
o Layout is in order of the operations required on the part, and the part flows
through the process from its first to last process
o Very similar product, or derivatives
o Process layout
o Layout where areas are fixed for different processes and the part is taken to
the area depending on the process required on it. i.e milling station, turning
station, etc.
o Cellular layout(GT/lean)
o Mixes product flow with process layout
o Flexible manufacturing

PRODUCT-FLOW LAYOUT

FOR A PRODUCT FLOW LINE, UTILIZATION HAS TO BE VERY HIGH – AROUND 0.99%
For parallel work flow, if each machine utilization is 90% - overall will be 90% because other
machines can do the work

Agile systems: came about due to the demand for greater variants of products – this
appeared with the technology of machining centres being more and more flexible

-there is a requirement for line balancing, i.e each operation and its variants would need to
have similar process times else it will hold up the production flow
-it can be reconfigured based on demand/requirements – i.e send different operations to
different machines
-benefit is that it offers greater variety with different variations of the same operation
-benefit is that if one machining centre goes down, the product flow doesn’t stop – other
machines can continue building other types of parts, or even take some workload off the
other machines because you have the ability with the MC to store 10-20 tools, so there
could be sister-tools which can take up work from the machining centre that went down.

Flexible operator line:

This is used for automotive component supply industry with the intention being volume-
oriented design.
HIGH VOLUME – LOW VARIETY
This is characterized by uni-directional part flow (often in a U-shape)
Operators have specific walk-cycles where they are responsible for certain machines or
operations
Hence the way to increase/reduce production would be to increase/decrease the number of
operators based on the walk cycle
These use standard CNC equipment with a roller conveyer transfer to shift parts uni-
directionally

PROCESS LAYOUT
Problem:
o All parts went to every machine, so the product flow from each station was very
complex and the result was excessive part movement with no pre-defined
sequence(i.e the order of operations was fixed, but the sequence to each station
depended on the availability of the machine) – spaghetti lines
o No ownership of product – everybody took responsibility for their own operation,
but product itself has no ownership – hence it can be difficult to trace the source of
any issues/defects
o Product 95% in moving and waiting – 5% actually on the machine. Within the 5% -
being cut less than 30% and position, loading was 70%
Comparison to Flexible operator line/cellular manufacture – you can easily trace the source
of problems

Cellular manufacture : Group technology(GT) or Lean Cell Layouts

Converse to process layout, companies began to group families of parts together:
Three methods to group part families:
o Visual inspection: look at part and identify what groups of parts go together based
on their features and the operations required to make them
o GT Coding: using a coding convention for individual operations and part
characteristics that could be associated to each part, and group the parts based on
their digits and similar codes could be grouped together as they would have identical
characteristics.
o Production flow analysis: looked at flow of product using the process flow and
identified major flows or cells that they could use to group them together. They used
cluster analysis – where the parts were grouped based on the operations on a table.
Then the components were grouped together, and the components could be
clustered and grouped into part families where each group would be assigned a cell.

GT/Lean cells had a layout that enabled part ownership to be taken, because the
manufactured part stayed within that cell so it was easy to identify where it had been
manufactured.
Benefits:
o Better throughput with less WIP because the cell was laid out in a way where the
part would flow through the cell systematically

Note: flexible operator lines(FOL/FML) are a type of cellular manufacture/group

technology(GT) for high volume, low-variety
^Because this cell has a lot of individual operations rather than combining those operations
onto a machining centre because they need to output high volumes. However, GT produces
a wider variety of parts.

FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING

Flexible manufacturing systems(FMS) general principle

- This is a fully-automated manufacturing system

- Came in the 80s with the intention to fully automate manufacturing
- Low-to-medium volume : “push to try and manufacture parts in low batches with
automation to make any part in any order in batches of one”
3 essential components of FMS:
 CNC controlled machine tools
 Conveyance network to move parts/tools between machines/fixture stations (RGVs)
 Overall control system to co-ordinate machine tools, parts, moving elements,
workpieces

Benefits of FMS:
 High capital equipment utilization – CNC utilization is usually 40-60% - FMS machines
were expected to working at 90-95% utilization [2 machines at 90%=3 machines at
60%]
 Reduced capital equipment costs – due to higher utilization, less capital equipment
costs would be required for the same level of production but conversely other
investment like RGVs and pallet rotary plates
 Reduced direct labour costs – less people required, just operator to load/unload
 Reduced WIP & lead times – higher utilization and efficiency
 Responsiveness to changing production requirements – because it focuses on low
batches so additional parts could be easily be added to the schedule. Similarly, keep
the machines running if one broke down because parts could be transported to
alternate machines with similar capabilities since it was fully automated.
Drawbacks:
 Large amount of computational power required, which at the time(80s) was not
possible
 Automation still required a lot of people to manage and inspect to ensure processes
are operating smoothly
 Due to heavy automation, there was less value/emphasis on the experience of the
operator, hence the components needed to be heavily proofed and proved out, and
the fixturing would need to be totally foolproofed to ensure consistency.
  Parts that went through the process required parts to be manufactured in a
repetitive manner – not just once or in a large batch, it had to parts being made on a
regular basis.
 The raw material needs to be of high quality with consistency in its structural
integrity and high quality in terms of dimensional accuracy due to its
unattended/automated system
 Typically parts are of same material

Categories of FMS:
 Unattended/Unmanned Machining Stations (UMS)
 Flexible Machining Cells
o Prismatic
o Cylindrical
 Flexible Machining/Manufacturing Systems

FMS/FMC could be swapped over, or FMS could encompass the full region
The categorisation always depends on the type of parts and variety of parts you make in
comparison to the volume.

UMS - milling
You have a pallet, TYPICALLY horizontal machine with a tombstone/cube fixture
You’ll be able to fixture all the pallets with one pallet in the machine

You can set parts up and with the pallet buffer, it can automatically machine overnight
8hrs machining
4hrs changing
8hrs changing
Problem: when you needed more fixtures than the number of pallets: ideal scenario would
be that you have six pallets and you never change the fixtures.

UMS – turning
On a lathe , a robot would pick up the billets from a workpiece magazine and load it onto
the machine
Different types of billets
The limiting factor is the robot’s billet gripper which would require similar billet sizes
Turning is usually for much larger batches

FLEXIBLE MACHINING CELL

Prismatic FMC
Characterized by a number of similar machines in a row, with a RGV
Use RGVs
Most common form is horizontal machining centre
Parts would typically be loaded with fixtures
Limiting factors is tool storage – can have 60-80-100 tools in a magazine

With 2 machines – this is most commong modern set-up, not the one with the rotary table

Cylindrical FMC
Uses a robotic transporter which takes part from input conveyer through to lathe1 or lathe
2
Then it would go to a grinding station or inspection station
The parts would then be sent to the output conveyer, and any rejected parts from
inspection sent onto the reject section

Note: it is controlled by a cell processer

BUT today, it is typically done on a mill/turn centre where the whole part is made in one-
setup and machined in one hit – using automatic bar feeder
 FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
The basic example of traditional didn’t work because it was too big, too expensive, not
enough computing power. = today’s FMS is built around cells.

Makino FMS
Tool room with automatic tool delivery

Multi-cell FMS

Yamazaki Mazak

Small Prismatic Part FMC

 Same horizontal machines in a row
 150-200 pallet store area which have fixtures on pallets making up 200 different part
types
 Pallet stocker on RGV because it can get to different heights and load onto machines
 200 different part types on production line
 They designed all their products with a limited number of cutting tools – desingers
limited to using 60 tools. This allowed them to put those 60 tools on all machines, so
all 200 different part types could go to any machine.
 Typically 4/5-axis machine
 Rgv with temporary storage area
 Access for the operator to load/unload pallets

Multi-cell FMS
 Mazak Video

Modern Flexible Machining Cells

Makino
 Scheduling and transportation control (DNC-distributed numeric control which is
ability to send NC programs, tool setting data to the machine)
 Tool data and tool life information transferred to machine

Model A:
 2 machine cell
 Load unload station
 Temporary storage buffer station
 RGV loading parts
 2 spaces outside machine – one to come out from machine, one waiting to go in
Model D
 RGV
 At far end, there is a tool pallet – the pallet sits on a normal part pallet and is picked
up by RGV. It has 9 spaces, 3 – 3 – 3: 3 tools to come out, 3 tools to go in
 The same RGV that carries part pallets also carry the pallets with the tool, and
instead of delivering it to the pallet buffer area, they deliver it to the side of the
 machine which has the tool storage area for tools to be loaded/unloaded into the
machine.
 FMCs are the only place where you will get all info about part times, processing
times, tool life – standalone CNC machines don’t have that.
 More flexible than Mazak machines in terms of tools.

Characteristics:
 Linear vehicle
 Pallet stocker
See pictorial view:

 Part transporter and tool transporter separate(Mazak) or together (Makino)

Future AM FMC
  Robot that goes up and down on a transporter
 X2 PBF SLM to produce part from powder
 Vacuum cleaner to get rid of power
 Powder removal station: rotates pallet inside machine to get rid of excess powder
in an enclosed area to get rid of 98% of the powder
 Equator: measurement station where the the 250x250mm was split into 4 –
125x125mm pallets where the parts were measured

See slides for written stuff

Renishaw RAMTIC:
 Unattended work stations where they deliver a carousel containing the tools and
the raw material required for the build
 The operator first checks the tools in the tool pallet and ensures they are in the
correct position and ensures the raw material is on fitted on the carousel
 The operator fixes the carousel onto the machine and the machine is run,
automatically drawing the raw material and the cutting tools required from the
carousel into the machine.
 The machine then automatically sets up and begins the process by probing to set
datums and automatically machines the parts.
 Once machining of the components is complete, the tools are taken out of the
machine and fitted back into the tool pallet and sent back into the carousel