Colloquium announcement

Faculty of Engineering Technology

Department Design, Production and Management
Master programme Mechanical Engineering

As part of his / her master assignment

Broers, J.A. (Joost)

will hold a speech entitled:

Identifying Machine Connectivity Patterns and Principles

Date08-12-2021
Time13:00
RoomOH210

Summary

Manufacturing has shifted more to an information centered industry to  improves the production process. To be able to shift to this information centered industry, a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) can be used. For this shift, the main goals are to identify which information is necessary for the MES to function according to user specifications. For this connection, multiple implementation strategies can be used to find whether a company can prepare this implementation for the connection of the machines themselves.

To asses what data is necessary to be collected, requirements engineering tools are used as a starting point. For this, goals for each department are determined. Each of these goals can be completed by identifying capabilities that the machines needs to be able to perform. The machines that need to be able to perform these can then be determined. Using the machines and additional devices that are necessary to be connected, the implementation strategy for the connection of the machines can be determined. The connection can be done by the company itself or the MES supplier, as well as the machine manufacturer can aid in the connection.

This study is performed at the circular saw manufacturer Kinkelder, which specializes in high-quality circular saws. Kinkelder is in the process of implementing a MES. The necessary capabilities that are used to complete the goals of Kinkelder, have been identified. From this, it came that the error messages and the connection between the measured data and the production order should be implemented first. Using the list of identified necessary capabilities and the machines that are in-use at Kinkelder, the machine parameters that are necessary to fulfill these identified necessary capabilities are determined. For machine parameters that are necessary, but not available in the machine, additional devices are proposed. For each implementation strategy for the connection of the machines to the MES, advantages and disadvantages are created, which can help a company decide which strategy is most suited for them. It is found that machines manufactured by the same machine manufacturers make use of the same machine controls and protocols. This allows them to be connected in a similar manner. In contrast to this, although machines that carry out the same process have the same necessary capabilities, the implementation for the connection of these machines can differ if different machine controls are used. With this, the research has shown what initial steps need to be taken to prepare machines for the connection to a MES and what information is necessary before doing so.