Smart Assembly: Industry Needs and Challenges

摘要

In recent years globalization has radically changed the nature of manufacturing (including manufacturing engineering), with an increasing emphasis on the management of complex, dynamic, interconnected supply chains. Manufacturing has become information and knowledge intensive, requiring the sharing of information accurately, inexpensively, and seamlessly throughout the extended enterprise and supply chain. Vertical integration is declining as a competitive advantage, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are instead focusing on managing core technologies and critical assets, emphasizing systems integration, assembly, service and marketing. To an increasing extent, part fabrication is globally outsourced, but there remains a business case for placing final assembly close to the customer. "Smart Assembly" is about re-inventing assembly processes (engineering and operations) to succeed in this new environment. Smart Assembly may be a key aspect of future, thriving manufacturing enterprises. General Motors (GM), in collaboration with the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory (MEL), is developing a broad industry definition and vision for Smart Assembly, and is beginning to develop the technology and business process "roadmaps" that will provide a framework to focus and prioritize both current and future research and development (R&D) in this area. In this paper, we will: (1) Present a high-level business case for the importance of manufacturing in general, and Smart Assembly in particular. (2) Present a working definition of Smart Assembly, and a vision of what Smart Assembly might look like in the future; (3) Describe efforts to increase awareness of Smart Assembly, through the creation of a smart assembly working group, which is hoping to refine the vision, scope, business case scenarios and roadmaps for what we hope will ultimately be a National Smart Assembly activity. (4) Describe how Smart Assembly is being considered in the context of MEL's strategic planning.