Manufacturing

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Manufacturing is not just the transformation of raw materials into value-added outputs meeting specifications. It has a much broader meaning.

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The CAM definition of manufacturing essentially captures this broad meaning: Manufacturing is a series of interrelated activities and operations involving design, material selection, planning, production, quality assurance, management, and marketing of discrete consumer and durable goods.

This definition of manufacturing lays a foundation for the need for systems thinking. That means that, given the complexities involved in manufacturing because of the large number of interrelated activities, there is need for coordinated efforts from every organ of an organization.

Furthermore, for a manufacturing organization to remain competitive, it must deliver products to customers at the ...
... minimum possible cost, the best possible quality, and the minimum lead time starting from the product conception stage to final delivery, service, and disposal.

This implies the notion of the product life cycle approach to design and manufacturing. To accomplish these objectives, a high level of integration is required among all these activities.

Present-day manufacturing activities may be classified in two broad categories.- continuous-process and discrete-product production. The focus of this book is on discrete-product manufacturing systems. To satisfy the order-winning criteria of low cost, high quality, and quick delivery response in a discrete-product manufacturing environment requires the combination of the attributes of mass production with those of a job shop.

It is important to realize that systems based on the job shop concept have high product flexibility. That is, these systems are capable of making a variety of parts with ease but overall productivity tends to be low. On the other hand, mass production systems are dedicated to one type of product, which makes them much less flexible, but their level of productivity is much higher than that of comparable job shops.

To address the problem of low productivity while retaining high levels of flexibility, new types of systems have been developed. These are called flexible manufacturing systems. (FMS) rely heavily on computer controlled equipment such as computer numerical control (CNC) equipment, automated guided vehicles (AGVs), and robots. They are developed on the basis of group technology concepts making use of similarities in design attributes and manufacturing features.

We will introduce some of these concepts later in this chapter, and they are discussed in detail in later chapters. Before that, let us quickly review the stages of developments in the field of manufacturing technology.

For all the advances in manufacturing we are indebted to our ancestors who developed the steam engine, water mills, wind mills, iron furnaces, and other innovations. The concept of division of labor, introduced by Adam Smith in 1776, had a profound influence on the creation of the factory system and on productivity improvement.

Development of flow line assembly systems for engines by Henry Ford in 1913 was a giant step t
oward integrated manufacturing. This led to the realization of reduced labor and increased production rate.

Frederick Taylor introduced the scientific approach to many such ideas. Other production specialists in the scientific management movement, such as Frank B, Gilbert and Henry L, Gantt, made especially significant contributions. Gilbert's primary contribution was the identification, analysis, and measurement of fundamental motions involved in performing work.

Gantt devised the so-called Gantt chart which provides a systematic graphical procedure for preplanning and scheduling work activities, reviewing progress, and schedule updating. The Great Depression of 1929 forced everyone to think in a new direction requiring employee motivation and satisfaction, which led to the development of the idea of job enrichment and enlargement.

In the area of machines, Devon G C developed a controller device in 1946 that could record electrical signals magnetically and play them back to operate a mechanical machine (U. S. patent issued in 1952). A number of interesting developments since then in the areas of numerically controlled machine tools, robotics, material handling systems, and computer control systems have led to the current state of automated manufacturing technology, such as flexible manufacturing systems. We provide a brief historical perspective on each of these.

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