Coupling product and manufacturing system design
by George-Christopher Vosniakos, Xenofon V. Gogouvitis, Emmanuel E. Stathatos
International Journal of Collaborative Enterprise (IJCENT), Vol. 1, No. 1, 2009

Abstract: This work examines the pathways leading from preliminary product and process development first (Stage 1) to detailed product design, with emphasis on analysis-based configuration issues (Stage 2) and then, to manufacturing system design focusing on performance prediction (Stage 3). Stage 1 starts with an enhanced QFD exercise that setting both functional and manufacturing requirements, resulting in a product configurations table. Stage 2 enables generation of systematic variations of the best main configuration using parametric CAD software and DfM/DfA assessment tools. In addition, FEA is conducted on a limited number of product variations and results are used to train a neural network meta-model which acts as an evaluator of functional performance. Stage 3 simulates manufacturing system performance based on individual manufacturing processes decided in the previous two stages considering equipment, material handling options, production rate drivers, etc. Feedback is generated mainly within stages and in exceptional circumstance between stages, too. The methodology is demonstrated using as case-study a meteorological mast.

Online publication date: Thu, 11-Jun-2009

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