Thorsten Wuest

The nature of manufacturing systems faces ever more complex, dynamic and at times even chaotic behaviors. In order to being able to satisfy the demand for high-quality products in an efficient manner, it is essential to utilize all means available. One area, which saw fast pace developments in terms of not only promising results but also usability, is machine learning. Promising an answer to many of the old and new challenges of manufacturing, machine learning is widely discussed by researchers… Show more

The nature of manufacturing systems faces ever more complex, dynamic and at times even chaotic behaviors. In order to being able to satisfy the demand for high-quality products in an efficient manner, it is essential to utilize all means available. One area, which saw fast pace developments in terms of not only promising results but also usability, is machine learning. Promising an answer to many of the old and new challenges of manufacturing, machine learning is widely discussed by researchers and practitioners alike. However, the field is very broad and even confusing which presents a challenge and a barrier hindering wide application. Here, this paper contributes in presenting an overview of available machine learning techniques and structuring this rather complicated area. A special focus is laid on the potential benefit, and examples of successful applications in a manufacturing environment. Show less

Manufacturers of complex, high-value consumer products are increasingly forced to think of ways to satisfy their customers’ needs, stand out from competition and access new revenue streams. One way to accomplish that is to utilise the potential of product service bundles, which allow customers to enjoy a more holistic experience of products. The objective of this study was to investigate how the development of a novel concept, the product avatar and its application to existing products can… Show more

Manufacturers of complex, high-value consumer products are increasingly forced to think of ways to satisfy their customers’ needs, stand out from competition and access new revenue streams. One way to accomplish that is to utilise the potential of product service bundles, which allow customers to enjoy a more holistic experience of products. The objective of this study was to investigate how the development of a novel concept, the product avatar and its application to existing products can contribute to servitisation. After establishing a solid foundation through a literature review, the theory behind the product avatar concept is introduced. In the following, the support of the product avatar concept for the main drivers of servitisation is discussed. The theoretical findings are then evaluated through a case study describing the development and application of the product avatar to leisure boat product lifecycle management data in the European boat industry. The results indicate that the product avatar concept does support servitisation by e.g. supporting industrial stakeholders to create new services around their core product which, in turn, may create new revenue opportunities. Show less

The mineral raw materials industry is essential for manufacturing by providing the basic materials for their value adding processes. In the last decade, the integration of operations of the industry within global manufacturing supply chains has progressed greatly. The processes of the different stakeholders have been extensively analysed and modelled according to standardised frameworks such as the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. However, as of today, not all stakeholders are… Show more

The mineral raw materials industry is essential for manufacturing by providing the basic materials for their value adding processes. In the last decade, the integration of operations of the industry within global manufacturing supply chains has progressed greatly. The processes of the different stakeholders have been extensively analysed and modelled according to standardised frameworks such as the supply chain operations reference (SCOR) model. However, as of today, not all stakeholders are integrated to the same extent. Especially, in the early part of the supply chain, deep integration of the mineral raw materials industry is still an exception. This industry and its processes differ greatly from the average manufacturing company’s processes. Not being directly comparable results in the absence of applications of standardised modelling tools for supply chains like the above-mentioned SCOR model. These circumstances hinder the integration, understanding and exchange between industries that rely significantly on each other. In a first attempt to create a basis for further research, this study analyses, elaborates and compares the challenges and requirements of supply chain processes, with a special focus on sourcing processes, in manufacturing and mining. Based on these findings, an adaption of the SCOR model towards applicability in mining and mining supply processes is presented, followed by a critical discussion of the results and implications, later concluded by a short outlook on further research.
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Increasing market demand towards higher product and process quality and efficiency forces companies to think of new and innovative ways to optimize their production. In the area of high-tech manufacturing products, even slight variations of the product state during production can lead to costly and time-consuming rework or even scrapage. Describing an individual product’s state along the entire manufacturing programme, including all relevant information involved for utilization, e.g.… Show more

Increasing market demand towards higher product and process quality and efficiency forces companies to think of new and innovative ways to optimize their production. In the area of high-tech manufacturing products, even slight variations of the product state during production can lead to costly and time-consuming rework or even scrapage. Describing an individual product’s state along the entire manufacturing programme, including all relevant information involved for utilization, e.g., in-process adjustments of process parameters, can be one way to meet the quality requirements and stay competitive. Ideally, the gathered information can be directly analyzed and in case of an identified critical trend or event, adequate action, such as an alarm, can be triggered. Traditional methods based on modelling of cause-effect relations reaches its limits due to the fast increasing complexity and high-dimensionality of modern manufacturing programmes. There is a need for new approaches that are able to cope with this complexity and high-dimensionality which, at the same time, are able to generate applicable results with reasonable effort. Within this paper, the possibility to generate such a system by applying a combination of Cluster Analysis and Supervised Machine Learning on product state data along the manufacturing programme will be presented. After elaborating on the different key aspects of the approach, the applicability on the identified problem in industrial environment will be discussed briefly. Show less

OPEN ACCESS

Product and process quality was and still is a key factor of success for manufacturing companies in the competitive global business environment. The stage gate model represents a well-established method for quality management in the product development domain. This paper discusses the application of the stage gate model in the domain of production. The two domains differ in certain areas, which has to be reflected by the adapted stage gate model. The preliminary findings of… Show more

OPEN ACCESS

Product and process quality was and still is a key factor of success for manufacturing companies in the competitive global business environment. The stage gate model represents a well-established method for quality management in the product development domain. This paper discusses the application of the stage gate model in the domain of production. The two domains differ in certain areas, which has to be reflected by the adapted stage gate model. The preliminary findings of the two case studies, covering manufacturing and assembly processes, indicate that an adapted stage gate model may provide valuable support for product and process quality improvement. However, the success is strongly dependent of the right adaptation, taking the individual requirements, limitations and boundaries into consideration. Show less

Quality and efficiency increased in importance over the last years within the manufacturing industry. To stay competitive companies are forced to constantly improve their products and processes. Today’s information technology and data analysis tools are promising to further enhance the performance of modern manufacturing. In this paper, at first, the concept of the product state based view in a distributive manufacturing chain is presented, followed by a brief introduction of relations between… Show more

Quality and efficiency increased in importance over the last years within the manufacturing industry. To stay competitive companies are forced to constantly improve their products and processes. Today’s information technology and data analysis tools are promising to further enhance the performance of modern manufacturing. In this paper, at first, the concept of the product state based view in a distributive manufacturing chain is presented, followed by a brief introduction of relations between product states along the chain. After showing that a in detail description based on cause-effect models is not economical viable today, the possibilities of using machine learning on intermediate product states to analyze the process sequence is introduced and discussed. Providing a chance to analyze large amounts of data with high dimensionality and complexity, machine learning tools combined with cluster analysis are perfectly suited for the task at hand within the product state based concept. Show less

Customer expectations towards products are constantly increasing. They are not limited to product quality alone but also include the accompanying services and information provided. Intelligent Products allow the retrieval and communication of large amounts of information from all stages of the product lifecycle. Customers have become used to user-centric presentation and customizable information presentation from their experience with the Web 2.0 and Social Networks. Implementing Product… Show more

Customer expectations towards products are constantly increasing. They are not limited to product quality alone but also include the accompanying services and information provided. Intelligent Products allow the retrieval and communication of large amounts of information from all stages of the product lifecycle. Customers have become used to user-centric presentation and customizable information presentation from their experience with the Web 2.0 and Social Networks. Implementing Product Avatars as parts of Social Networking Services (SNS) as digital representations of physical products allows the presentation of individually customized information in a familiar environment for different stakeholders. This can raise the acceptance and the lower the adoption threshold for Product Avatars by increasing their availability and usability on both stationary and mobile devices. Show less

German:
Dieser Fachbeitrag besteht aus zwei sich ergänzenden Konzepten mit dem Ziel einer ressourceneffizienten Fertigungssteuerung, die Nacharbeit und Ausschuss verringert. Werden Qualitätsanforderungen des individuellen Produkts nicht erfüllt, greift eine Flexibilisierung des Kundenentkopplungspunkts, der die qualitätsbasierte Auftragszuordnung durch die Produktzustandsbetrachtung ermöglicht. Der entstehende Steuerungsaufwand wird mithilfe von Technologien, die unter dem Begriff… Show more

German:
Dieser Fachbeitrag besteht aus zwei sich ergänzenden Konzepten mit dem Ziel einer ressourceneffizienten Fertigungssteuerung, die Nacharbeit und Ausschuss verringert. Werden Qualitätsanforderungen des individuellen Produkts nicht erfüllt, greift eine Flexibilisierung des Kundenentkopplungspunkts, der die qualitätsbasierte Auftragszuordnung durch die Produktzustandsbetrachtung ermöglicht. Der entstehende Steuerungsaufwand wird mithilfe von Technologien, die unter dem Begriff „Cyber-Physische Systeme“ (CPS) subsumiert werden, automatisiert.

English:
This approach consists of two complimentary concepts with the overarching goal to increase resource efficiency by reducing rework and scrap. In case quality requirements of an individual product cannot be met through process adjustments, a flexible customer order decoupling point will be used to identify alternative usage. The arising complexity of control is automated through technologies, summarized under the term cyber physical systems.
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Manufacturing companies today face fierce global competition and volatile and rising prices on an ever more restricted natural raw material supply market. Customers demand high quality of the purchased products and supplying companies have to find ways to fulfill these customer requirements. In general, there are two ways how companies can meet specific requirements when material properties are in the focus. On the one hand, they can choose a material which exceeds the required specifications… Show more

Manufacturing companies today face fierce global competition and volatile and rising prices on an ever more restricted natural raw material supply market. Customers demand high quality of the purchased products and supplying companies have to find ways to fulfill these customer requirements. In general, there are two ways how companies can meet specific requirements when material properties are in the focus. On the one hand, they can choose a material which exceeds the required specifications and produce the product from that material. That way, the final product is mostly over engineered, not by over dimensioning but by the high grade material of choice. Another way is, to take a material, which basic material properties are not meeting the requirements yet and change the material properties through processing to exploit the material property potential.
materials, especially high grade and high value ones became increasingly rare and die exporting countries of specific raw materials start to implement more and more restrictions, the second option seems to have high chance to grow in importance in the near future.
To exploit materials property potentials through the process, a solid understanding of mechanisms of manufacturing process have to be available for the stakeholders. The manufacturing process will become more complex which will trigger the need for a better understanding of the process, material and product and therefore information and knowledge involved to achieve the planed and customer demanded quality. To help the manufacturer to gain and handle the required knowledge and information about their manufacturing processes, materials and products, the product state based view can provide a holistic concept to compile valid information during manufacturing, including the mapping of interdependencies over the whole manufacturing process chain and identification and delivery of the relevant information to the right addressee. Show less

Increasing market demand towards higher product and process quality and efficiency forces companies to think of ways to optimize their production. In the area of high-tech manufacturing products even slight variations of the product state during production can lead to costly and time-consuming rework or even scrap parts. Describing an individual products state along the whole manufacturing process including all relevant information involved for utilization in e.g. in-process adjustments of… Show more

Increasing market demand towards higher product and process quality and efficiency forces companies to think of ways to optimize their production. In the area of high-tech manufacturing products even slight variations of the product state during production can lead to costly and time-consuming rework or even scrap parts. Describing an individual products state along the whole manufacturing process including all relevant information involved for utilization in e.g. in-process adjustments of parameters can be one way to stay competitive. Ideally the gathered information can be directly analyzed and in case of an identified critical trend or event, adequate action, like an alarm, can be triggered. Within this paper, the possibility to generate such a system by using cluster analysis and supervised machine learning on product state data along manufacturing processes will be assessed. Finally, the question will be answered, if this concept is a promising approach to increase quality. Show less