A MODEL FOR MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS DEFINITION AT EARLY STAGES OF DESIGN PROCESS

摘要

The automotive industry has improved its manufacturing processes, especially with the lean manufacturing tools development. However, these improvements are implemented on the advanced phases of new product development or even during serial life. During the very beginning phase of product development, just a few assumptions are considered regarding manufacturing system. Thus, very often, there are inconsistences between what was forecast and what actually occurs, in terms of manufacturing activities. These can lead to either lack of competitiveness of financial losses. Therefore, this paper provides an approach to define the manufacturing system for a product on the initial stages of its development. Initially, the IDEFO framework is applied. All the stages needed to define a manufacturing system are mapped and the inputs, outputs, mechanisms and controls are formally declared. Field information and procedures from a company that manufactures plastic parts are also examined. Then, a proposed approach to define a manufacturing system, with its stages and tasks, is set. The suggested approach allows a: i/ better estimation of the manufacturing system parameters and related processes; ii/ anticipation of potential hard points for time study, line balancing and layout definition. This paper is included on the field of manufacturing systems technology and represents an innovative model for develop manufacturing systems during the design process, in order to achieve a sustainable growth of the automotive industries.