Move aside, lean manufacturing. Experts believe that future factories will adopt a new concept to optimize efficiency and rely on smart machines that will have the ability to learn:

Peek into the future, and you will see factories that have been completely transformed by advancements in process intelligence tools, experts say. In fact, some analysts expect the impact of such tools to be as far-reaching as the influence of Henry Ford’s work with mass production. And along with process intelligence tools, smart machines are expected to figure prominently in the future of factories as well. Here are some ways that these tools and machines could shape the factory of tomorrow:

• Strategic manufacturing. According to Steve Brown, in his book entitled, Strategic Manufacturing for Competitiveness Advantage, Transforming Operations From Shop Floor to Strategy, strategic manufacturing will succeed the concept of lean manufacturing in the factory. Brown defines the new term as “viewing production operations capabilities as a core competence, having a long term view of the business, being fully aware of all market opportunities, planning strategies to outperform competitors by targeting sectors in which it can compete while deliberately avoiding those in which it cannot, and engage in horizontal and vertical partnerships.” In short, strategic manufacturing is more comprehensive than lean manufacturing, encompassing everything from human resources, to product development, and corporate and production strategies. And factories of the future will embrace this more integrated approach, say some analysts.

• Simulation. Early adopters in the automotive, aerospace, shipbuilding and defense industry are already realizing time and cost savings from 3-D simulation of production processes in factories. In the future, this technology could also provide sales support, allowing customers and upper management to preview precisely what they will get. Simulation will also help the shop floor, displaying to operators the sequence of operations they must perform. Moreover, workers could get up-to-date engineering data and work instructions on the screen, retrieving as much data as they need to do their job effectively. In fact, the National Research Council (NRC) has repeatedly stressed the significance of modeling and simulation in the future of the U.S. manufacturing sector. In one study, NRC wrote, “no other technology offers more than a fraction of the potential that modeling and simulation does for improving products, perfecting processes, reducing design-to-manufacturing cycle time and reducing product realization costs.” To help secure the technology’s place in the future of factories, the federal government is helping to support development.

• Smart machine tools. The make-to-order trend will influence every aspect of manufacturing, from production processes to equipment. And it will also alter the role of the machine tool. According to Paul Warndorf, vice president of technology at The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), McLean, Virginia, we can trace the beginning of the trend to the arrival of multi-tasking machines such as Mazak Corp.’s Integrex. He says that now the focus is on advancing the capabilities of machine tools and creating the smart machine. He stresses that the U.S. must put the technologies in place to enable manufacturing equipment to make decisions based on knowledge that has been attained over time. In fact, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Maryland, developing the smart machine is regarded as a national security imperative, according to researcher Hans Soons, program manager of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory. If NIST is able to achieve its goals, Soons says future factories will have smart machines that can optimize machining, self-diagnose, and evaluate their condition and the quality of their work. And over time, these machines could learn and improve.

Source:

Lean, Green & Smart
John Teresko
Industry Week, May 1, 2004
www.industryweek.com/CurrentArticles/asp/articles.asp?ArticleID=1603