In this first session, we provide an overview of the course, finalize the class roster, describe the term projects and complete the team assignments.

We begin the course with a brief discussion of manufacturing, its importance for the economy, and its relationship to product design and marketing. Also, we provide a case study of the recent developments in the machine tool industry in the USA.

This class also introduces the concept of reconfigurable, agile manufacturing. We discuss the market-based priorities and competitive factors that should shape a firm's manufacturing strategy. We also discuss the historical transition from mass product to lean production, along with efforts to undertake agile and mass customized production. This discussion serves as the basis for understanding the current development of reconfigurable manufacturing.

The globalization of the economy has forced manufacturers to operate within a competitive market characterized by large fluctuations in product demand and short windows of opportunity for new products. To survive in such a market, manufacturers must produce new products very rapidly and adapt to variable quantities of products for niche marketing. Mass customization, (i.e., production of new items according to market demands) is becoming a reality in practice. In this class and the next class we explain different parameters involved in product design and the links between market, design and manufacturing of a product. In this regard, the appropriate manufacturing system to be used and the role of reconfigurable manufacturing systems will be explained.

Guest lecture: Ken Kohrs (Co-Director of TMI, Retired Ford VP), Product Development at Ford

Guest lecture: Dr.Nick Orlandea (Adjunct Professor of MEAM), Mass Customization

We continue with the discussion of product design issues that we began during class 2. We will focus on marketing and economic aspects of product design and manufacturing.

Guest lecture: Prof. Izak Duenyas, Life-cycle economics

Guest lecture: Prof. Chelsea White, User-supplier relationships and RMS

There are number of steps involved in manufacturing a product from conceptualization to production. These include product design, process planning, production system design, and process control. Computers are extensively used in all stages to make the process easier and faster. There are many software tools available such as computer aided design (CAD), computer aided process planning (CAPP), and computer aided manufacturing (CAM). We describe them and discuss how they can be effectively used in design and manufacturing of a part. In particular, system level design issues and design of the system based on the features of part family are discussed. Also, we describe the role of computers in simulating a manufacturing system and virtual manufacturing will be explored. We plan to visit virtual manufacturing lab.

Guest lecture: Dr. Derek Yip-Hoi,( From part family to manufacturing system design)

Guest lecture: Dr. Klaus Peter Beier (Virtual manufacturing)

In this class, we explain various manufacturing systems, their definitions and objectives. In this regard, we describe dedicated manufacturing systems, flexible manufacturing, agile, and reconfigurable manufacturing systems. We make a comparison among these manufacturing paradigms and discuss their achievements and limitations; we present recent trends in manufacturing and the requirements of future manufacturing systems.

We also use the results of a recent Delphi study to introduce the current status of available manufacturing systems. The results show both the need for "flexibility" in manufacturing systems, as well as the failure of current Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) in meeting those needs.

We discuss the idea of manufacturing cells and their requirements. We review their advantages in producing relatively smaller batches of a group of product at a lesser cost as compared to flexible manufacturing and reconfigurable manufacturing systems. We discuss components of a manufacturing cell and role of automation in making production systems more efficient. In this regard, we will demonstrate the important role of internet technology in integration of manufacturing cells/systems and modern industrial automation.

Part of this class is assigned to review of just-in-time manufacturing and lean manufacturing techniques.

Guest lecture: Prof. Liker, Just-in-time and lean manufacturing

Guest lecture: Prof. Yavuz Bozer (Material handling systems)

This class addresses key issues in agile manufacturing. By noting that agile manufacturing is mainly a business concept, the major focus of this class will be on the ways agile manufacturing can help manufacturing firms to become more efficient in doing business in a global market. A case study of an actual frim will be presented.

Guest lecture: Prof. William Mitchel, Agile manufacturing

Guest lecture: Harry Reed, Ford Motor Co.

In this class, the students will present their ideas about a new product that fits mass-customization markets and their business plan to sell the product in turbulent markets. They will describe manufacturing processes selected for their product and its impact on the reconfigurable factory. In this regard, students are expected to discuss the limitations of dedicated manufacturing systems for reconfigurability.

Every effort is made by the manufacturers to ensure that their products conform to certain specifications to guarantee their proper assembly, minimum defect of the final product, and higher quality. Statistical methods are extensively used to observe a manufacturing process and detect the defected products. In this class, we discuss statistical methods and their applications in quality control.

Part of the class is assigned to discussion of the effects of in the system configuration on factors such as part quality, and system productivity, reliability, and cost of the system. This is very important in the case of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. Economic analysis and evaluation of alternative manufacturing processes and machining system, cost models, and the design of an optimum system are needed. We present a case study and describe various parameters and their effects on product quality, cost, and system reliability.

Guest lecture: Prof. Jack Hu

Guest lecture: Dr. Tom Weber (Impact of system configurations)

This and the next two lectures are assigned to discussion of the machine design aspects of reconfigurable machining systems (RmS). Mechanical design, controller and monitoring system design of RmS are covered in detail; several visits to the ERC Labs are planned to clearly demonstrate some of the concepts.

Guest lecture: Mark Tomlinson, Lamb Tech.

Guest lecture: Prof. Sridhar Kota, Machine level design issues

An integral part of a modern manufacturing system is the software which should handle tasks at various levels such as control, monitoring, and communications among mechanical, electrical and electronic components (at low level) as well as higher levels tasks such as process planning, user interface, process control, data collection/report from the process, etc. Therefore, the structure and functionality of the communication and control software is very critical and directly affects the performance of the entire system. In this class we focus on explaining and identifying some of the enabling technologies of reconfigurable manufacturing systems and in particular open-architecture controllers. In this regard, we review some of the recent developments in "open architecture" systems and their principles; we discuss their advantages and contribution in modern manufacturing environment.

Guest lecture: Clark Bailo (GM), Current global activities (research/design/development activities)

Guest lecture: Zbigniew Pasek/ Dawn Tilbury, Fundamentals of open architecture systems/Discrete-event control logic

To produce better quality products, the machines and processes are tightly controlled by using real-time data collected from sensors located at different locations (i.e., machines/process). In this class, we discuss several key components of modern intelligent sensor-based monitoring and diagnosis systems. We discuss their design principle and their role in a manufacturing environment. In particular, we focus on monitoring systems of reconfigurable manufacturing systems. We discuss features and role of Stream of Variation Theory (SOV) in ramp-up time reduction. Results of a ERC/RMS survey on monitoring are also presented.

Guest lecture: Prof. Jan Shi

Guest lecture: Prof. Elijah Kannatey-Asibu