Transcript Evolution of the State of Manufacturing

Evolution
of the
State of Manufacturing
Up Until the Mid-1800’s



custom-made products
skilled craftsmen (blacksmith, cooper, …)
much human energy, some wind and water power
Turn of the Century
(end of 1800’s/beginning of 1900’s)




increasing wealth stimulates great demand for
conventional and new products
steam engine - machines controlled by cams and
linkages, driven by belts via common drive shaft
these machines become the backbone of
automated factories to produce a variety of
complex, mostly custom-made, products
example
Electricity




electromotor and electric switching components are
invented
each machine tool can be provided with its own
power drive
a factory can be configured in various ways
depending on the required layout of the
manufacturing system
the factory can be tailored towards a specific
application
Rigid Flowline Production





concept of division of labor/mass production and
part interchangeability (Henry Ford)
rigid flowline production (assembly line)
high quality products become available to many
people who previously were unable to afford the
expensive custom-made products
due to enormous investment, rigid flowline
production can’t be altered easily
market becomes saturated with standard products manufacturing system needs to become more
flexible
Other Inventions Shape the
Manufacturing System


vacuum tubes and transistors make it possible to
build machine controllers that can be
reprogrammed to a limited degree - can now
produce various product variants
the numerical controller (NC) is invented at MIT in
1947 combining hardware and software
technologies in one control unit - allowing
machining of complex, low volume parts
Integrated Circuits


transistors and other electronic components are
integrated into very compact circuits (VLSI, very
large-scale integration)
micro, mini, and mainframe computers become
available for controlling manufacturing processes
(PLCs, programmable logic controllers)
Computer Integrated Manufacturing


all activities that make and shape (not only
machining) a product are integrated
for example the communication between planning
and control and the manufacturing floor responsiveness to market/customer
More Recent Developments



Read “... major operations-related concepts that
have been popular since the 1980s.” (ref. Jacobs
and Chase)
Sustainability/Green
Read “A Revolution in the Making” (Wall Street
Journal, June 11, 2013)