Title: Agile product design through CAD: a case study in an Indian rotary switches manufacturing organisation

Authors: S. Vinodh, Arun Lawrance, D. Rajanayagam

Addresses: Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, Tamilnadu, India. ' Department of Production Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli 620 015, Tamilnadu, India. ' Manager-Standards and Systems, Salzer Electronics Limited, Coimbatore 641047, Tamilnadu, India

Abstract: Due to increasing global competition, manufacturing organisations are witnessing a transformation in manufacturing systems. The craft manufacturing era got transformed to mass customised manufacturing. Modern organisations are forced to make a quick response so as to satisfy the varied dynamic customers| demands. Agile manufacturing (AM) is the capability of manufacturing organisations to produce a variety of products within a short period of time in a cost effective manner. Technology integrated AM research has taken place to a feeble extent. In this study, Computer-aided design (CAD) has been utilised for enhancing design agility of a traditional manufacturing organisation. Based on existing designs, ten new designs have been proposed. The designs have been practically validated to ensure the receptivity of the designs from the viewpoint of practitioners. Based on the conduct of the case study, it is claimed that the traditional manufacturing organisations could utilise the advanced technologies for enhancing their agility level, thereby sustaining in the global market scenario.

Keywords: agile manufacturing; CAD; computer-aided design; design engineering; rotary switches; product design; advanced manufacturing technology; AMT.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISE.2011.041370

International Journal of Industrial and Systems Engineering, 2011 Vol.8 No.2, pp.215 - 229

Published online: 31 Jan 2015 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article