Challenge

Enable stable and resilient operations across lean distributed manufacturing processes.

Project Objectives

1. To identify the type and scale of disturbances  impacting production operations at Boeing
2. To propose improved methodologies to assess the balance between lean and resilience
3. To propose how enhance track and trace  concepts can be adopted within production control systems
4. To demonstrate key developments through a lab based proof of concept demonstrator

Lean vs Resilient

Production Mathematical model developed that describes the operation of a production system in the face of disruptions

Outputs:

• Industrial guidelines for planning a resilient manufacturing system configuration  (best buffers sizes, location of inspection points)
• Trade-offs in attempting to achieve both lean and resilient production

Tracking and Control of Resilient Production Tracking and tracing       

• Enables timely visibility of production operation      
• Full traceability of orders/parts/resources enabling root cause analysis
• Information architecture and data integration Control Mechanism     
• Flexible distributed control system (disturbance detection, dynamic reaction for disturbance handling)       
• Incorporates real-time tracking information into decision making

Proof of Concept Demonstrator                            

• To show the various  disruptions that occur in process/assembly based manufacturing techniques To implement technological solutions to manage those disruptions and demonstrate the practical implications of disruption tolerant manufacturing process
• To demonstrate various lean vs resilient strategies and control architecture for disruption tolerant systems

Principal Investigator

Duncan McFarlane

Researchers

Alan Thorne

Raj Srinivasan

Alena Puchkova

Jumyung Um

Project Partner

The Boeing Company