DIGITAL MANUFACTURING FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Mechanical engineering

Digital manufacturing has been considered in competitive advantages in integrated as well as advance manufacturing process, over the last decade, as a highly promising set of technologies for reducing product development times and cost as well as for addressing the need for customization, increased product quality, and faster response to the market. This paper describes the evolution of information technology systems in manufacturing, outlining their characteristics and the challenges to be addressed in the future. Together with the digital manufacturing and factory concepts, the technologies considered in this paper include computer-aided design, engineering, process planning and manufacturing, product data and life-cycle management, simulation and virtual reality, automation, process control, shop floor scheduling, decision support, decision making, manufacturing resource planning, enterprise resource planning, logistics, supply chain management, and e-commerce systems. These technologies are discussed in the context of the digital factory and manufacturing concepts. Digital simulation tools are jointly employed for the design of an existing aircraft engine components manufacturing cell to be enhanced through automated robotic deburring. The application of 3D Motion Simulation is illustrated for layout and material handling system design. Discrete Event Simulation is applied to analyse different scenarios and improve the cell performance with regards to two key objectives: (a) optimization of the batch throughput time for the part number fabricated in the manufacturing cell; (b) utilization increase of the automated deburring station by processing additional part numbers coming from other manufacturing cells in the same production department

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