Fuzzy logic control for varied inspection applications in advanced manufacturing cells

摘要

A Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) was designed to perform "varied" inspection (an inspection frequency method between acceptance sampling and 100% inspection) for a single station manufacturing system, for markets where manufacturers require more control over inspection systems' usage. Varied inspection has benefits of reducing over-inspection and bottlenecking. Manufacturers use screening methods in the pursuit of zero defects however, varied inspection has advantages in high variety manufacturing where systems are sensitive to production rates affected by inspection time. The FLC was designed to vary inspection rates based on the quality of the incoming parts and the buffer levels. Buffer level reduction has positive impacts in production by decreasing Work-In-Process (WIP). The contribution of the study was to show that Quality Control (QC) could be used as a tool to regulate important manufacturing metrics such as WIP. The controller was tested in a single station manufacturing cell, for the purpose of extending it for MC applications in future work.