Cost-effective Design of Automotive Framing Systems Using Flexibility and Reconfigurability Principles

Manufacturing enterprises are entering an era of new challenges where manufacturing needs to compete in a global economy with open and unpredicted market changes. Manufacturing facilities need to possess a high degree of flexibility, enabling mass customization of production. Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS) is a relatively new concept, which if adopted properly, will become a design foundation for the next generation of world-class production systems. They will help automotive companies achieve rapid response and cost-effective product delivery aligned with the current market demand. This research introduces new systematic methods dealing with a complete end-to-end design process to production systems, where the uncertainty of product variety is mapped to product attributes and manufacturing processes, then mapped into a production line using product decomposition into systems, sub-systems, and modular assembly. Graph network (NW), change propagation index (CPI) and hybrid design structure matrix (HDSM) were introduced. Design structures matrix (DSM) and hybrid design structure matrix (HDSM) were used along with axiomatic design (AD) to ensure customer needs are translated into action. A hierarchal structure has been developed for a body-in-white (BIW) framing system. Implementation for best practice and coordination between processes in all design stages is a prerequisite for other function requirements. Knowing systems level interaction early in the product developments process is critical for design concept selection, and systems architectures decisions. However, existing methods that address the system's interaction, such as the design structure matrix (DSM), are good to analyze the systems but cannot be used during conceptual synthesis when most important designs are made. Systems level knowledge is critical to the success of the design of large systems and needs to be captured at the early stage of the design. Results of using the proposed methodology on a real case study shows that the proper implementation of flexibility and reconfigurability in the production system increase the capability and shows significant improvements in throughputs of production systems. Real production data was used to redesign the assembly line of production systems using digital manufacturing (DM) and production simulation. Simulation model of the state of practice was developed using DELMIA's Digital Manufacturing solution (IGRIP).

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering

Grantor

University of Windsor

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Al-Zaher, Abdo

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Waguih ElMaraghy
• Zbigniew Pasek

Licence

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en_CA

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14776/4881

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:uwindsor.scholaris.ca:20.500.14776/4881