Optimizing Automated Manufacturing Processes Using Axiomatic Design Methods

Browne, Michael

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Optimizing Automated Manufacturing Processes Using Axiomatic Design Methods

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Automating industrial manufacturing processes is a task that is often easier said than done. Due to emergent behaviors in both the end item being assembled, and in the robotic assemblers themselves, it is not uncommon for a change in one aspect of the design of the combined system (product + robot assembling the product) to have unintended impacts in seemingly unrelated areas of the overall system. These emergent behaviors are usually the result of poor or incomplete mapping of all the interactions between all the characteristics of the system. However, the axiomatic method provides the tools necessary to not only begin map these interactions, but to also confirm that all the requirements of the system have been met and are organized in an optimal way. The objective of this paper is to objectively analyze a hypothetical automated manufacturing environment, and all the aspects of its design that will be necessary for it to succeed in its mission of generating profit for the company that operates it. Currently, factories are often designed after-the-fact, after a product has been developed, and all manufacturing processes are tailored to suit it. Any defects or inefficiencies in a process are dealt with reactively, after they have already had a financial impact on the company. Instead, this paper proposes designing product and manufacturing process concurrently by utilizing the axiomatic design method, and that by doing so, it becomes possible for interactions to be fully mapped and understood before anything — product or manufacturing tools — is built. By doing things this way, this paper shows that it then becomes possible to better utilize available robotic manufacturing tools & processes.

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