Development of Manufacturing Systems - A Methodology Based on Systems Engineering and Design Theory

Doctoral thesis, 2005

Increased global competition impose strain on all activities in manufacturing companies. For manufacturing systems development there is a need for systematic methods to provide shorter development time and higher quality of the resulting system. However, manufacturing systems development have been an overlooked area for a long time in Swedish industry (with a few brilliant exceptions). Manufacturing systems are generally not designed with a holistic approach. Companies tend to focus on the solution instead of starting with the requirements. There is much to learn from other engineering disciplines such as design theory and software engineering, where established scientific theories and methods are used in industry. The objective of the research is to formulate theory for manufacturing systems development that will impose a more systematic and holistic approach than today's practice. In order to meet the objective the research has been conducted on two tracks: Studies of manufacturing engineering practice in order to map the current situation and secondly development of a methodology for manufacturing systems development. The methodology cover activities from a need for a new or changed system to the formulation of the requirement specification and the development of a concept for the manufacturing system. The methodology is based on a set of general principles that are essential for sound and rational manufacturing systems design as well as a structure for the activities that need to be carried out as well as a structure for the decision making. The activities are described as processes provided through an adaptation of the international standard for systems engineering (ISO 15288). The structure for decision making is provided by the axiomatic design theory. This design theory provide a formal division of requirements and solutions, and a mean to manage dependencies in the manufacturing system. It is concluded that this methodology can provide a scientific foundation for manufacturing systems development. Important parts of the methodology have been evaluated in industrial case studies.