Self-Resilient Reconfigurable Assembly Systems with In-process Quality Improvement

Globalization and ever-changing customer demands resulting in product customization, variety and time to market have intensified enormous competition in automotive and aerospace, manufacturing worldwide. Manufacturers are under tremendous pressures to meet changing customer needs quickly and cost effectively without sacrificing quality. Responding to these challenges manufacturers have offered flexible and reconfigurable assembly systems. However, a major challenge is how to obtain production volume flexibility for a product family with low investment and capability to yield high product quality and throughput while allowing quick production ramp-up.
Overcoming these challenges involves three requirements which are the focus of this proposal: (1) Model reconfigurable assembly system architecture. The system architecture should purposefully take into account future uncertainties triggered by product family mix and product demands. This will require minimizing system changeability while maximizing system reusability to keep cost down; (2) Develop novel methodologies that can predict process capability and manage product quality for given system changeability requirements; and (3) Take advantage of emerging technologies & rapidly integrate them into existing production system, for e.g., new joining processes (Remote Laser Welding) and new materials.
This project will address these factors by developing a self-resilient reconfigurable assembly system with in-process quality improvement that is able to self-recover from (i) 6-sigma quality faults; and (ii) changes in design and manufacturing. In doing so, it will go beyond state-of-the-art and practice in following ways: (1) Since current system architectures face significant challenges in responding to changing requirements, this initiative will incorporate cost, time and risks involving necessary changes by integrating uncertainty models; decision models for needed changes; and system change modelling; and (2) Current in-process quality monitoring systems use point-based measurements with limited 6-sigma failure root cause identification. They seldom correct operational defects quickly and do not provide in-depth information to understand and model manufacturing defects related to part and subassembly deformation. Usually, existing surface-based scanners are used for parts inspection not in-process quality control. This project will integrate in-line surface-based measurement with automatic Root Cause Analysis, feedforward/feedback process adjustment and control to enhance system response to fault or quality/productivity degradation. The research will be conducted for reconfigurable assembly system with multi-sector applications. It will involve system changeability/adaptation and in-process quality improvement for: (i) Automotive door assembly for implementing an emerging joining technology, e.g. Remote Laser Welding (RLW), for precise closed-loop surface quality control; and (ii) Airframe assembly for predicting process capability also for precise closed-loop surface quality control.
Results will yield significant benefits to the UK's high value manufacturing sector. It will further enhance the sector by accelerating introduction of new emerging eco-friendly processes, e.g., RLW. It will foster interdisciplinary collaboration across a range of disciplines such as data mining and process mining, advanced metrology, manufacturing, and complexity sciences, etc. The integration of reconfigurable assembly systems (RAS) with in-process quality improvement (IPQI) is an emerging field and this initiative will help to engender the development into an internationally important area of research. The results of the research will inform engineering curriculum components especially as these relate to training future engineers to lead the high value manufacturing sector and digital economy.

The primary beneficiaries of approaches developed by this initiative are UK's automotive and aerospace industries. There is though potential for considerable spill-overs into other industries such as mobile phone, appliances, shipbuilding, jet engines, etc.
OEMs (and related supply chains) are interested in predicting process capability; best ways to create hybrid systems that will allow effective adoption/utilization of the emerging technologies; and how to achieve performance in a cost effective way with small batches/samples. The integration of reconfigurable assembly systems with in-process quality improvement using surface-based measurements can generate several benefits to UK manufacturers. First, in addition to reducing dimensional variation, it will create a much needed base to introduce new emerging joining processes into the automotive and other assembly systems, and efficient uptake of these innovations. Second, it will reduce expensive design changes/errors. Third, it will lead to reduction of ramp-up time. Finally, it will result in improvement of quality. There can also be substantial spill-overs and broader diffusion effects. For example, the developed approaches could be applied to manufacturing industries other than automotive and aerospace and also other assembly processes. Due to the general need for these types of analyses capabilities, it is expected that the approaches from this project can be applied to a wide range of industries. These approaches are termed "industrial analytics" in this initiative, and we believe this to be emerging interdisciplinary field. Also, through the use of the developed methodologies, end users will gain greater knowledge of their processes for more efficient operations. They may be able to develop new processes and products due to improved capabilities. The downstream consumers should enjoy higher quality at lower cost. This can potentially trigger a series of changes in design and manufacturing processes. In turn, this may trigger other players in the market to either upgrade their technology or develop new technologies to maintain competitive edge. The approaches could serve as catalyst for greater technological evolution in the manufacturing sector.
In addition, this initiative will allow faster introduction of emerging technologies such as Remote Laser Welding (RLW) which is known to have good "green" credentials. RLW based assembly systems occupy 50% less floor space; 80% fewer robots and less tooling stations thus reducing tooling requirements and carbon footprint. It will allow lower vehicle weights leading to better fuel efficiency, lower consumption of raw materials due to better design and use of advanced materials, lower emission and energy consumption due to energy efficient and faster production cycle time, & lower energy consumption during recycling phase. This will translate to enhanced eco-efficiency thereby further increasing competitiveness of the UK manufacturers.