Title: Decision support tool using concurrent engineering framework for agile manufacturing

Authors: Thankachan T. Pullan

Addresses: Mechanical Department, Rajagiri School of Engineering Technology, Rajagiri Valley, Kakkanad, Kochi, Kerala, 682039, India

Abstract: Competitive situations have led to increasing attention being paid to customer satisfaction, of which timely and customised services are the key concepts. The need for a method of rapidly and cost-effectively developing products including design, process planning and shop floor control system has led to the concept of agile manufacturing. This paper proposes concurrent engineering (CE) framework using effective application of information technology and knowledge-based engineering using object oriented technology which will help adoption and implementation of agile manufacturing practices. This gives manufacturing units an extra edge in today's cost and time competitive market. Considerable improvement was achieved in a machine tool manufacturing company on the basis of the methodology presented in this paper. CE was implemented for its new products, systems and processes are aligned and leads to agility to manufacturing. Lead time could decrease more than 50% compared with similar development projects carried out in this company.

Keywords: concurrent engineering; agile manufacturing; decision support systems; DSS; simultaneous engineering; manufacturing agility; information technology; knowledge-based engineering; KBE; object oriented technology; machine tool manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2014.061445

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2014 Vol.7 No.2, pp.132 - 154

Received: 08 Jul 2013
Accepted: 03 Dec 2013
Published online: 30 Jun 2014 *

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