Description
The aim of this unit is to develop students’ understanding of that complexity within a modern manufacturing environment. Among the topics covered in this unit are: elements that make up a manufacturing system, including production engineering, plant and maintenance engineering, product design, logistics, production planning and control, forecast quality assurance, accounting and purchasing, all of which work together within the manufacturing system to create products that meet customers’ requirements.
On successful completion of this unit students will be able to explain the principles of a manufacturing system and consider how to design improvements. They will be introduced to all the elements that make up a modern manufacturing system, and they will learn how to optimise the operation of existing systems through discerning use of monitoring data. Some of the elements will be developed in greater depth; of particular importance will be looking at the systems of production planning and control, which are the day-to-day tools used to manage the manufacturing system effectively.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this unit students will be able to:
1. Illustrate the principles of manufacturing systems engineering and explain their relevance to the design and enhancement of manufacturing systems.
Manufacturing systems elements:
Elements to be considered include quality, cost, delivery performance and optimising output
Problem-solving and managing complexity, maintenance scheduling and planning, resource planning and productivity
Effect of testing and data analysis on performance
2. Use a range of analysis tools, including value stream mapping, to determine the effectiveness and efficiency of a manufacturing system, and then develop an appropriate future state for that system.
Analysis tools:
Introduction to value stream mapping, and the value of both current state mapping and future state mapping
Bottle-neck analysis, by using process improvement tools and techniques e.g. value stream analysis, simulation, kanban
Using key performance indicators to understand the performance of a manufacturing system e.g. overall equipment effectiveness, lead-time, cycle time, waiting time, yield, delivery performance, safety metrics
Reviewing key performance indicators; methods for presenting metrics and performance e.g. balanced scorecards, performance dashboards, Andon boards, Gemba walks
3. Outline the impact of different production planning approaches on the effectiveness of a manufacturing system.
Production planning approaches:
Examples of production planning strategy: push vs pull factors, kanban systems, make to stock, make to order and engineer to order
Production planning approaches such as batch and queue, pull/kanban, just-intime, modular design, configuration at the final point, and master scheduling
Production planning management tools:
Enterprise Resource Mapping (ERP) systems, Material Resource Planning (MRP 2) and Manufacturing Execution systems, ability to managing complexity and resourcing through information technology
Industrial engineering issues: the importance of standard times and the impact on productivity and the costing of products. Standard work underpins the repeatability of process and quality control
4. Define the responsibilities of manufacturing systems engineering and review how they enable successful organisations to remain competitive.
Effectiveness of manufacturing systems:
Plant layout design, planning and control, productivity and continuous improvement, quality control and equipment effectiveness
Return on investment and capital expenditure, control of the cost of planned maintenance
Manufacturing information technology: the supply of data from the process to decision-makers e.g. failure modes for both product and system, maintenance and down time data, standard times for production, material control, energy usage