Real-Time Early Warning System for Sustainable and Intelligent Plastic Film Manufacturing

Integrated Control Policy for a Multiple Machines and Multiple Product Types Manufacturing System Production Process with Uncertain Fault

The optimization of production cost has always been a key issue in manufacturing systems; for the single product type manufacturing systems, lots of research studies have proved the validity of the hedging point control policy in production cost control. However, due to the complexity of the multiple machines and multiple product types manufacturing systems with uncertain fault, it is difficult to achieve a good control effect only by using the hedging point control policy. To optimize the total production cost under constantly changing demands, an integrated control policy that combines the prioritized hedging point (PHP) control policy with the production capacity planning during production is proposed, and the decision variables are obtained by a particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm. The simulation experiments show the effectiveness of the proposed integrated control policy in production cost control for the multiple machines and multiple product types manufacturing system.

Industry 4.0-Based Real-Time Scheduling and Dispatching in Lean Manufacturing Systems

Lean manufacturing is one of the most popular improvement agents in the pursuit of perfection. However, in today’s complex and dynamic manufacturing environments, lean tools are facing an inevitable death. Industry 4.0 can be integrated with lean tools to avoid their end. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper is to introduce an Industry 4.0-based lean framework called dynamic value stream mapping (DVSM) to digitalize lean manufacturing through the integration of lean tools and Industry 4.0 technologies. DVSM with its powerful features is proposed to be the smart IT platform that can sustain lean tools and keep them alive and effective. This paper specifically tackles the scheduling and dispatching in today’s lean manufacturing environments, where the aim of this research is developing a smart lean-based production scheduling and dispatching model to achieve the lean target through optimizing the flow along the VSM and minimizing the manufacturing lead time. The developed model, called the real-time scheduling and dispatching module (RT-SDM), runs on DVSM. The RT-SDM is represented through a mathematical model using mixed integer programming. Part of the testing and verification process, a simplified IT-based software, has been developed and applied on a smart factory lab.

The Analysis of Key Technologies for Sustainable Machine Tools Design

Machine tools as indispensable tools for manufacturing products are typical high-energy, high-carbon manufacturing systems due to their larger mass, longer life cycles and huge resources and energy consumption. The current research trend of sustainable machine tools aims to reduce cost, energy consumption and increase sustainability without compromising their functionality, usability, productivity, accuracy, etc. However, there is a lack of systematic reviews about what are the key technologies for sustainable machine tools design. Thus, a comprehensive literature review of machine tool design for sustainability is needed in order to make clear how to design and evaluate sustainable machine tools from the viewpoint of life cycle sustainability analysis. The aim of this paper is to review the sustainable design and assessment aspects of machine tool design from partial goals to integrated aims according to whole sustainability dimensions such as the environment, economy and society, as well as involving key techniques in different life cycle stages. Recent research and study on improving directly or indirectly sustainability performance of machine tools according to focus points could be summarized as: design optimization of components such as lightweight using topology and bionic methods; structure design with modular design and layout; reducing cutting fluids and lubricant oil by employing minimum quantity lubrication, dry and cryogenic machining; reducing energy consumption; waste reduction by reusing, remanufacturing and recycling; sustainability assessment i.e., energy model, life cycle cost and life cycle social benefit. This paper assists designers and manufacturers to improve sustainability of machine tools by specific optimization measures in their activities.