Factory-in-a-Box: Mobile Manufacturing
Bryan Bishop
equivalent of testing out your ftp daemon on the server, but it's
something that showed up in my inbox earlier this morning.
Random notes from this paper.
It is increasingly important to locate manufacturing activities close
to the most relevant competence or the most interesting market. The
possibility to easily and quickly move manufacturing capacity is thus
becoming more important. Hence, the demand for mobile manufacturing
has increased and requires solutions for a quick, rational, and
economical reconfiguration of the production system. Within the
research project Factory-in-a-Box, the concept of mobile manufacturing
has been investigated through the development and implementation of
five operative demonstrators.
This paper will analyze the concept of mobile manufacturing by
presenting the results from the Factory-in-a-Box research project and
its demonstrator development. The objective is to clarify when mobile
manufacturing capacity can be a proper solution to use as well as to
discuss future possible industrial manufacturing applications. The
results show that there is a large range of applications for the
concept of mobile manufacturing and that two dimensions–the
geographical distance and the organizational distance–can be used to
classify the mobility within manufacturing systems.
The results in this paper are based on the Factory-in-a-Box project,
which is a joint research project between several manufacturing
companies in Sweden and four Swedish universities. The aim of the
Factory-in-a-Box project is to provide solutions for mobile production
capacity for industry through standardized and mobile manufacturing
modules that easily could be transported by, for example, truck or
train. The modules must be easy to transport to the manufacturing site
as well as within the site. They must be able to adapt to new
situations and thus be flexible and reusable. Thus, the mobile
manufacturing modules must be reconfigurable as well as modular and
scalable to meet changing demands and varying production volumes.
These requirements are general, even though the specific requirement
depends on each specific application and on the context in which the
mobile manufacturing modules will be used. In the research project,
five fully operative demonstrators have been developed, realized, and
tested in operative settings in industry, where the benefits of the
concept have been evaluated.
The research objective of the demonstrators has primarily been to
exemplify mobile production capacity in a real manufacturing context.
This have been done by gathering ideas, knowledge, experience, and by
developing technical solutions in close collaboration between industry
and participating academic parties. The demonstrator is not only
referring to a physical artifact that is built within each case, but
to the whole mobile manufacturing system, where the physical artifact
is a part. Other important areas to include in the demonstrators are,
for example, education and training solutions for the operators,
logistic solutions to handle material, management solutions, or
information handling. Each demonstrator in the project has been
focused to investigate one or more of these areas. Thus, the
demonstrators can be seen as pieces of the concept of mobile
manufacturing, where each demonstrator has focused on, for example, a
specific technology, characteristic, business area, and/or business
concept. Together, the demonstrators are meant to represent a
'complete concept' of mobile manufacturing.
The demonstrators that have been developed are presented in the
following sections, and the analysis of those will subsequently be
presented.
Demonstrator 1—A mobile and reconfigurable robot cell
The first demonstrator, which has been developed and demonstrated
within a company providing industrial robot solutions, is an automatic
manufacturing module to assemble robot components. The manufacturing
module comprises two robots, a gluing station, a folding station, and
robot-handled tools (see Fig. 1 and Fig. 2). The company's interest in
the Factory-in-a-Box concept is related to making robot automation
profitable within its operations. Frequent product and production
layout changes, as well as a fairly low production volume, have made
traditional robot automation costly and hard to economically justify.
Fig. 1. Demonstrator 1—Simulation of assembly of robot controller cabinets.
Fig. 2. Demonstrator 1—Assembly of robot controller cabinets.
Demonstrator 1 has been designed to be moved anywhere within the
company's production system in Västerås, Sweden. Much effort was
invested to make this manufacturing module reconfigurable to handle
changing volume demands and to handle changes in the product design.
Technical solutions such as a software-based "cell" configurator,
wireless sensors, reusability of components, and mobile platforms for
robots and fixtures were developed and used to realize and implement
this demonstrator within the company.
Demonstrator 2—Mobile welding capacity for efficient manufacturing on
different sites
The next demonstrator is developed in collaboration with a supplier of
modular facilities to the offshore, telecom, and pharmaceutical
industries. At present, the company is striving to implement the same
concept in its manufacturing system as it has in its products, that
is, modularization.
Demonstrator 2 is constituted of a semi-automated manufacturing
module, which is used for cutting, beveling, and welding of carbon
steel pipes. All machinery is fitted into a standard container, which
also will contain fume hood exhaust, lighting, computer terminal, and
so on. The mobile manufacturing module is designed on a mobile
platform to be moved anywhere within the production system, to a
supplier, or to a site. The equipment shall easily be mounted and
reconfigured on standardized rigid base plates with flexible fixation
points. The mobile manufacturing module is movable by a truck,
specifying the need of a standardized container.
In Demonstrator 2, known technologies are used in all-new applications
and contexts. Orbital welding of carbon steel pipes with
straight-angle chamfers has never been done before. Earlier when this
kind of welding has been done, U-profile chamfers have been used.
However, using the U-profile shaped chamfers requires extra work
operations and more advanced equipment. Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 illustrate
Demonstrator 2 and the welding of pipes.
Fig. 3. Demonstrator 2—Simulation of pipes prepared for welding.
Fig. 4. Demonstrator 2—Welding of pipes.
This kind of mobile orbital welding equipment could be a great asset
for many different construction and installations sites where carbon
steel pipes are welded. The mobile manufacturing module can be leased
out to the company by a supplier or be owned by the company.
Demonstrator 3—A mobile robot cell for foundry application
The third demonstrator has been developed at a Swedish foundry company
that produces sand-casted aluminum goods. The company has modern and
highly operational facilities for both casting and final machining in
three different plant locations, with a distance of about 50 km
between the factories. The process steps of deburring and grinding
have been neglected, as in many other foundries. These operations
between the casting and machining are important but often are
performed manually using hand-held tools. The work is ergonomically
difficult and generally inefficient but hard to automate due to lot
sizes and number of variants. This is the motivation for the company
to take part in the Factory-in-a-Box project, and the objective of
this demonstrator has been to create an automatic solution for
deburring of casted products that can be moved between the company's
different plant locations.
After a preliminary analysis, it was concluded that not all of the
operations (between casting and machining) could be performed within
one automatic solution. The ideal solution would be to use several
small and cheap standardized automation cells that could perform a few
operations each. The demonstrator project focused on investigating one
cell that performs a set of operations connected to the deburring
work, such as sawing of bigger artifacts from the casting and some
milling and grinding.
The final concept that was developed includes a robot mounted inside a
container. The robot is placed on a flexible beam-system that can be
moved in and out of the container. A flexible fixture solution has
been proposed that can handle all of the products that are supposed to
be machined in the cell. The concept has been partly realized in a lab
environment, and whether it will be converted into an operational cell
is dependent on the company and circumstances outside of this research
project.
Demonstrator 4—Functional sales of mobile production capacity
Demonstrator 4 has been developed at a company that is a leading
supplier to the manufacturing and assembly industry across the globe.
The company's focus is automation of production flow within the
following processes: assembly, filling, machining, and packaging. The
objective in this demonstrator has been to use the company's products
to demonstrate the principles of the Factory-in-a-Box
project–flexibility, speed, and mobility–in a real customer case.
Even though a production line can be built up stepwise in traditional
turnkey projects, other possible commercial conditions such as leasing
and pay-per-produced-unit are of interest for the company. The
objective of this demonstrator has thus been to investigate the
possibility of "functional sales" of production capacity.
During 2005 and 2006, the demonstrator project included an
investigation of "functional sales" and a mapping of companies that
are interested in this commercial solution. More than 40 different
companies were contacted, and possible candidates for a commercial
application where identified. After identifying one company and a
specific application, the project has proceeded to the quoting phase.
The project has shown that industry is interested in this concept, but
the circumstances and details of a functional sales product offer are
quite complex and unproven. No commercial order has yet been realized.
Demonstrator 5—Mobile capacity to reach new markets
Demonstrator 5 has been directed to a global company, located in
Sweden, that manufactures trains. Many of the company's customers want
some part of the production to take place within their own country.
The global manufacturer has previously met this requirement by
outsourcing some of the production to a local company in the
customer's country. By utilizing a mobile manufacturing module, the
manufacturer fulfills the local production desire and yet maintains
control over the production. This can lead to winning orders in
markets otherwise closed, which will create job opportunities not only
for foreign countries but also for the manufacturer's site in Sweden
because the main part of the order is produced there.
The manufacturer in Sweden is facing a market where customers are
becoming more and more powerful due to global competition. Many
customers have strong wishes for part of the production to be carried
out locally to create new jobs. Instead of building factories that
will be abandoned as soon as the order is processed, the company and
the Factory-in-a-Box project aim to develop mobile manufacturing
modules that can be relocated as soon as the production of an order is
finished.
Demonstrator 5 contains four parts: a technical solution, a logistics
solution, a training solution for the local labor, and a methodology
for how to move, install, and put the mobile manufacturing module into
production.
A fully developed demonstrator enables a substantial reduction of the
resources needed for sharing experience and knowledge compared with a
conventional outsourcing strategy. The study has until now resulted in
two technical solutions for moving and housing manufacturing capacity
abroad; a special container (see Fig. 5) and a modular building
solution. The choice of final solution will be decided on after
analysis of the prognosis on usage frequency, production capacity
needed, and the strategic value of the solution for the company.
Fig. 5. Demonstrator 5—Collapsible container for assembly of train components.
*******
Mobile manufacturing capacity is above all characterized by the
ability to be quickly moved between two places and the ability to
efficiently be taken into a full production pace. To be mobile, the
capacity is characterized by reconfigurability, modularity,
reusability, and standardized hardware and software. Besides this, the
concept must also include solutions to manage the capacity and
business concept to be competitive.
Vinay Gupta
--
Vinay Gupta
Free Science and Engineering in the Global Public Interest
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"If it doesn't fit, force it."
Kevin Carson
>
> This isn't really progress in this domain since it's like the
> equivalent of testing out your ftp daemon on the server, but it's
> something that showed up in my inbox earlier this morning.
>
> http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VJD-4TK3FG8-6&_user=108429&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig=search&_sort=d&view=c&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=108429&md5=bf6e603b5de29cdfd026d5d00379877c
This is tantalizing stuff, but the abstract doesn't mention either the
capital outlay for buying this stuff or the output range it's expected
to run at. Do you have any info? If it's affordable for a small
group of people aggregating dispersed small investment capital, it
might really amount to something.
--
Kevin Carson
Mutualist Blog: Free Market Anti-Capitalism
http://mutualist.blogspot.com
Studies in Mutualist Political Economy
http://www.mutualist.org/id47.html
Anarchist Organization Theory Project
http://mutualist.blogspot.com/2005/12/studies-in-anarchist-theory-of.html
Bryan Bishop
> This is tantalizing stuff, but the abstract doesn't mention either
> the capital outlay for buying this stuff or the output range it's
> expected to run at. Do you have any info? If it's affordable for a
> small group of people aggregating dispersed small investment capital,
> it might really amount to something.
No, I don't have any numbers on it. I'm guessing that it isn't an issue
of buying the components since you just make them yourself instead. I
continuously try to hammer in the concept of philanthropical
bootstrapping .. but if you want to pay for it, I'm listening.
- Bryan
________________________________________
http://heybryan.org/
Engineers: http://heybryan.org/exp.html
irc.freenode.net #hplusroadmap
Kevin Carson
>
> On Monday 06 October 2008, Kevin Carson wrote:
> > This is tantalizing stuff, but the abstract doesn't mention either
> > the capital outlay for buying this stuff or the output range it's
> > expected to run at. Do you have any info? If it's affordable for a
> > small group of people aggregating dispersed small investment capital,
> > it might really amount to something.
>
>
> No, I don't have any numbers on it. I'm guessing that it isn't an issue
> of buying the components since you just make them yourself instead. I
> continuously try to hammer in the concept of philanthropical
> bootstrapping .. but if you want to pay for it, I'm listening.
No, I was just curious as to what kind of entry barrier the cost would present.