Implications of automation in engineer-to-order production:a case study

  • B?rge Sj?bakk ? Maria Kollberg Thomassen ?Erlend Alfnes
Expand
  • 1. Industrial Management, SINTEF Technology and Society,Trondheim, Norway
    2.Department of Production and Quality Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
e-mail: borge.sjobakk@sintef.no

Received date: 2014-02-11

  Revised date: 2014-04-09

  Online published: 2014-05-22

Abstract

In order to retain a certain level of production in Norway, suppliers to the Norwegian maritime industry need to lower their production costs. Automation is generally an effective way of achieving this in standardized high-volume, low variety production. However, manufacturing companies in the Norwegian maritime industry typically supply capital-intensive, advanced and customized products in low volumes. In this engineer-to-order production situation, manual labor is traditionally preferred over automation. Nonetheless, such companies increasingly automate parts of their production. This paper presents
a case of a supplier that has chosen to automate its welding operations, the implications and determinants of this decision.

Cite this article

B?rge Sj?bakk ? Maria Kollberg Thomassen ?Erlend Alfnes . Implications of automation in engineer-to-order production:a case study[J]. Advances in Manufacturing, 2014 , 2(2) : 141 -149 . DOI: 10.1007/s40436-014-0071-4

References

1. NHO (2007) Trøndelag i verden næringslivets hovedorganisasjon trøndelag. In: The 3rd international workshop of advanced manufacturing and automation,Trondheim, Norway, 27 Nov 2013

2. Maritim21 (2010) En bærekraftig maritim forsknings- og innovasjonssatsing:kunnskapsnav og infrastruktur. http://www.maritim21.no/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/M21-Rapport-Kunnskapsnav-og-infrastruktur-v1.pdf

3. Groover MP (2008) Automation, production systems, and computer-integrated manufacturing. Prentice Hall Press, New Jersey

4. Teknologira°det (2013) Made in Norway? Hvordan roboter, 3Dprintere og digitalisering gir nye muligheter for norsk industri.http://www.steampdf.com/view/made-in-norway-hvordan-roboter-3d-printere-og-digitalisering-gir-nye-muligheter-for-norsk-industri-26777572.html

5. Lindstro¨m V, Winroth M (2010) Aligning manufacturing strategy and levels of automation: a case study. J Eng Technol Manag 27:148–159

6. Chung CA (1996) Human issues influencing the successful implementation of advanced manufacturing technology. J Eng Technol Manag 13:283–299

7. Mehrabi MG, Ulsoy AG, Koren Y et al (2002) Trends and perspectives in flexible and reconfigurable manufacturing systems.J Intell Manuf 13:135–146

8. Granlund A, Jackson M (2013) Managing automation development projects: a comparison of industrial needs and existing theoretical support. In: Azevedo A (ed) Advances in sustainable and competitive manufacturing systems. Springer, Berlin,pp 761–774

9. Small MH (2007) Planning, justifying and installing advanced manufacturing technology: a managerial framework. J Manuf Technol Manag 18:513–537

10. Friedler N, Salonen A, Johansson C (2013) The automation equipment acquisition process–experienced users’ perspective.In: the 22nd International Conference on Production Research,Iguazu

11. Ordoobadi SM, Mulvaney NJ (2001) Development of a justification tool for advanced manufacturing technologies: system-wide benefits value analysis. J Manuf Technol Manag

18:157–184

12. Banakar Z, Tahriri F (2010) Justification and classification of issues for the selection and implementation of advanced manufacturing technologies. World Acad Sci Eng Technol 65:341–349

13. Fernandes R, Gouveia JB, Pinho C (2012) Product mix strategy and manufacturing flexibility. J Manuf Syst 31:301–311

14. Yin RK (2009) Case study research: design and methods. Sage Publications Inc, Thousand Oaks, CA

15. Eisenhardt KM (1989) Building theories from case study research. Acad Manag Rev 14(4):532–550

16. Greenwood DJ, Levin M (2007) Introduction to action research:social research for social change. Sage, Thousand Oaks

17. Gummesson E (2000) Qualitative methods in management research. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks

18. Bertrand J, Muntslag D (1993) Production control in engineer-toorder firms. Int J Prod Econ 30:3–22

19. Amaro G, Hendry L, Kingsman B (1999) Competitive advantage, customisation and a new taxonomy for non make-to-stock companies.Int J Oper Prod Manag 19:349–371

20. Wortmann J (1992) Production management systems for one-ofa-kind products. Comput Ind 19:79–88

21. Olhager J (2003) Strategic positioning of the order penetration point. Int J Prod Econ 85:319–329

22. Porter K, Little D, Peck M et al (1999) Manufacturing classifications:relationships with production control systems. Integr Manuf Syst 10:189–199

23. Hicks C, McGovern T, Earl CF (2001) A typology of UK engineer-to-order companies. Int J Logist 4:43–56

24. Wacker JG, Miller M (2000) Configure-to-order planning bills of material: simplifying a complex product structure for manufacturing planning and control. Prod Inven Manag J 41:21

25. Wikner J, Rudberg M (2005) Integrating production and engineering perspectives on the customer order decoupling point. Int J Oper Prod Manag 25:623–641

26. McGovern T, Hicks C, Earl CF (1999) Modelling supply chain management processes in engineer-to-order companies. Int J Logist Res Appl 2:147–159

27. Hicks C, McGovern T, Earl C (2000) Supply chain management: a strategic issue in engineer to order manufacturing. Int J Prod Econ 65:179–190

28. Little D, Rollins R, Peck M et al (2000) Integrated planning and scheduling in the engineer-to-order sector. Int J Comput Int Manuf 13:545–554

29. Stavrulaki E, Davis M (2010) Aligning products with supply chain processes and strategy. Int J Logist Manag 21:127–151

30. Rahim ARA, Baksh MSN (2003) The need for a new product development framework for engineer-to-order products. Eur J Innov Manag 6:182–196

31. Caron F, Fiore A (1995) ‘‘Engineer to order’’ companies: how to integrate manufacturing and innovative processes. Int J Proj Manag 13:313–319

32. Gosling J, Naim MM (2009) Engineer-to-order supply chain management: a literature review and research agenda. Int J Prod Econ 122:741–754

33. Muntslag DR (1994) Profit and risk evaluation in customer driven engineering and manufacturing. Int J Prod Econ 36:97–107

34. Hicks C, Braiden P (2000) Computer-aided production management issues in the engineer-to-order production of complex capital goods explored using a simulation approach. Int J Prod Res 38:4783–4810

35. Krajewski L, Wei JC, Tang LL (2005) Responding to schedule changes in build-to-order supply chains. J Oper Manag 23:452–469

36. Pandit A, Zhu Y (2007) An ontology-based approach to support decision-making for the design of ETO (engineer-to-order) products.Automat Constr 16:759–770

37. Elfving JA, Tommelein ID, Ballard G (2005) Consequences of competitive bidding in project-based production. J Purch Supply Manag 11:173–181

38. Danese P, Romano P (2004) Improving inter-functional coordination to face high product variety and frequent modifications. Int J Oper Prod Manag 24:863–885

39. Terwiesch C, Loch CH (1999) Managing the process of engineering change orders: the case of the climate control system in automobile development. J Prod Innov Manag 16:160–172

40. Minhas S, Lehmann C, Sta¨dter J et al (2011) Reconfigurable strategies for manufacturing setups to confront mass customization challenges. In: the 21st International Conference on Production Research (ICPR 21), Stuttgart, Germany

41. Pan Z, Polden J, Larkin N et al (2012) Recent progress on programming methods for industrial robots. Robot Comput Integr Manuf 28:87–94

42. Johansson R, Robertsson A, Nilsson K et al (2004) Sensor integration in task-level programming and industrial robotic task execution control. Ind Robot Int J 31:284–296

43. Forge S, Blackman C (2010) A helping hand for Europe: the competitive outlook for the EU robotics industry. EUR-Scientific and Technical Research Reports, Publications Office of the European Union

44. Essers M, Vaneker T (2013) Developing concepts for improved efficiency of robot work preparation. Procedia CIRP 7:515–520

45. Lozano-Perez T (1983) Robot programming. Proceedings of the IEEE 71(7):821–841

46. Rossano GF, Martinez C, Hedelind M et al (2013) Easy robot programming concepts: an industrial perspective. In: 2013 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE), pp 1119–1126

47. Neto P, Mendes N (2013) Direct off-line robot programming via a common CAD package. Robot Autonom Syst 61(8):896–910

48. Larkin NP, Milojevic A, Pan Z et al (2011) Offline programming for short batch robotic welding. In: The 16th International Conference on the Joining of Materials, Denmark

49. Chen H, Sheng W (2011) Transformative CAD based industrial robot program generation. Robot Comput Integr Manuf 27:942–948

50. Wang J, Zhang H, Fuhlbrigge T (2009) Improving machining accuracy with robot deformation compensation. In: IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems, pp 3826–3831

51. Tan KK, Huang S, Zhang Y et al (2009) Distributed fault detection in industrial system based on sensor wireless network.Comput Stand Interfaces 31:573–578

52. Da Silveira G, Borenstein D, Fogliatto FS (2001) Mass customization: literature review and research directions. Int J Prod Econ 72:1–13

53. Liana SY, Hecker RL, Landers RG (2004) Machining process monitoring and control: the state-of-the-art. J Manuf Sci Eng 126:297–310

54. Blackstone JH, Cox JF (eds) (2010) APICS Dictionary. American Production & Inventory Control Society, Incorporated

55. Frohm J, Lindstro¨m V, Bellgran M (1998) A model for parallel levels of automation within manufacturing. In: the 18th International Conference on Production Research

56. Parasuraman R, Sheridan TB, Wickens CD (2000) A model for types and levels of human interaction with automation. IEEE Trans Syst Man Cybern A 30:286–297

57. Winroth M, Safsten K, Stahre J (2007) Automation strategies:existing theory or ad hoc decisions? Int J Manuf Technol Manag  11:98–114

58. Sa¨fsten K, Winroth M, Stahre J (2007) The content and process of automation strategies. Int J Prod Econ 110:25–38

59. Beckman SL, Rosenfield DB (2008) Operations strategy, competing in the 21st Century. McGraw-Hill, New York

60. Wickens CD, Mavor AS, Parasuraman R (1998) The future of air traffic control: human operators and automation. National Academies Press, Washington DC

61. Endsley MR (1999) Level of automation effects on performance,situation awareness and workload in a dynamic control task.Ergonomics 42:462–492

62. Frohm J (2008) Levels of automation in production systems.Chalmers University of Technology, Go¨teborg

63. Parasuraman R, Riley V (1997) Humans and automation: use,misuse, disuse, abuse. J Human Factors Ergon Soc 39:230–253

64. Kalpakjian S, Schmidt SR (2010) Manufacturing, engineering and technology SI. Prentice Hall, Singapore

65. Wadhwa RS (2012) Flexibility in manufacturing automation: a living lab case study of Norwegian metalcasting SMEs. J Manuf Syst 31(4):444–454

66. Bellgran M, Sa¨fsten K (2010) Production development: design and operation of production systems. Springer, Berlin

67. Sarkis J (1997) Evaluating flexible manufacturing systems alternatives using data envelopment analysis. Eng Econ 43:25–47
Outlines

/