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Manufacturing at double the speed

Allwood, Julian; Childs, Tom; Clare, Adam; Silva, Anjali De; Dhokia, Vimal; Hutchings, Ian; Leach, Richard; Leal-Ayala, David; Lowth, Stewart; Majewski, Candice; Marzano, Adelaide; Mehnen, J�rn; Nassehi, Aydin; Ozturk, Erdem; Raffles, Mark; Roy, Raj; Shyha, Islam; Turner, Sam

Authors

Julian Allwood

Tom Childs

Adam Clare

Anjali De Silva

Vimal Dhokia

Ian Hutchings

Richard Leach

David Leal-Ayala

Stewart Lowth

Candice Majewski

Adelaide Marzano

J�rn Mehnen

Aydin Nassehi

Erdem Ozturk

Mark Raffles

Raj Roy

Sam Turner



Abstract

The speed of manufacturing processes today depends on a trade-off between the physical processes of production, the wider system that allows these processes to operate and the co-ordination of a supply chain in the pursuit of meeting customer needs. Could the speed of this activity be doubled? This paper explores this hypothetical question, starting with examination of a diverse set of case studies spanning the activities of manufacturing. This reveals that the constraints on increasing manufacturing speed have some common themes, and several of these are examined in more detail, to identify absolute limits to performance. The physical processes of production are constrained by factors such as machine stiffness, actuator acceleration, heat transfer and the delivery of fluids, and for each of these, a simplified model is used to analyse the gap between current and limiting performance. The wider systems of production require the co-ordination of resources and push at the limits of human biophysical and cognitive limits. Evidence about these is explored and related to current practice. Out of this discussion, five promising innovations are explored to show examples of how manufacturing speed is increasing—with line arrays of point actuators, parallel tools, tailored application of precision, hybridisation and task taxonomies. The paper addresses a broad question which could be pursued by a wider community and in greater depth, but even this first examination suggests the possibility of unanticipated innovations in current manufacturing practices.

Citation

Allwood, J., Childs, T., Clare, A., Silva, A. D., Dhokia, V., Hutchings, I., …Turner, S. (2016). Manufacturing at double the speed. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 229, 729-757. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2015.10.028

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Oct 22, 2015
Online Publication Date Nov 2, 2015
Publication Date 2016-03
Deposit Date Dec 10, 2020
Publicly Available Date Dec 10, 2020
Journal Journal of Materials Processing Technology
Print ISSN 0924-0136
Publisher Elsevier
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 229
Pages 729-757
DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmatprotec.2015.10.028
Keywords Manufacturing; Speed; Productivity; Constraints
Public URL http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2686838
Related Public URLs http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/24774/

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