The priorities of executing the manufacturing orders generated by an MRP system are often in operational conflicts with the dynamics of the manufacturing floor. It is not uncommon for a given manufacturing order to reach the shop floor several weeks or longer after being "opened" by an MRP system where it may face a chaotic case of large queues, machine down-time, parts shortage, scrap problems and other resource management constraints. Many companies have resorted to the Manufacturing Execution System (MES) software solution to resolve these problems. This method first gained popularity in mid-90’s within the semiconductor industry. An MES approach is an on-line, real-time data gathering, analysis and storage to assist in short-interval scheduling (shift or day) manufacturing operations with an emphasis on revising scheduling priorities. It is essentially an information system tool for the shop floor and if designed properly, it may be used as an advisory system for effective decision-making. However, in implementation MES faces several challenges including the proper software platform/architecture, integration within ERP or a stand-alone best-of-breed, amount and type of data/information to be exchanged with the MRP engine, and a user-centered interface for various layers of decision making. This paper will provide a detailed background on various technical, software, and organizational factors that the use of an MES implementation may impose upon the practitioner. Furthermore, and as a case study, it will discuss a systematic implementation strategy for MES at a high-tech company in California. The discussion of the critical success factors in implementation planning will hopefully be of value to both practitioners and researchers in similar projects.

<p>Näringsliv och offentlig sektor står inför ständiga utmaningar att förändra och effektivisera sin verksamhet. Idag ses information som en verklig produktionsfaktor och åtkomst till lämplig informationen ses som en nödvändighet för uppnå effektivitet och produktivitet i de individuella aktiviteterna (Oehlmann, Thoben & Weber, 1997). Med hjälp av elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner på produktionsgolvet har tillverkande industrier hittat en effektiv metod för att minska variationerna, öka kvaliteten, förbättra kommunikationen, minimera kostnaderna och snabbare få ut produkterna på marknaden, den s.k. Time-to-market (Coetzee, 2004).</p><p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om Informationslogistik genom införandet av elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner kan påverka effektiviteten och kvaliteten i ett företag vilket använder sig av elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner.</p><p>En fallföretagsstudie har genomförts på HMS Industrial Networks AB, en världsledande leverantör av fältbuss-teknologi för automationsutrustning. De har utvecklat ett IT-system för att hantera elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner vilket de använder fullt ut i sin tillverkning.</p><p>Mer praktiskt har uppsatsens arbete handlat om att undersöka hur de anställda upplever att det påverkat deras effektivitet i det dagliga arbetet, såväl som kvaliteten i arbetet, informationen och på produkterna.</p><p>Intervjuer med användare från dokumentationsteamet och produktionsmedarbetarna har gjorts och resultatet visar att användandet av PRIS och elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner har gett en rad effekter i verksamheten, både för dem vilka administrerar och hanterar produktionsunderlagen såväl som för de berörda användarna på produktionsgolvet och i övriga delar i organisationen.</p><p>Resultatet visar att Informationslogistik i allra högsta grad kan påverka effektiviteten och kvaliteten i ett företag. Dokumentationsteamet kan arbeta parallellt i de olika produktionsunderlagen, det är enklare att lägga upp ett underlag och hantera uppdateringar, innehållet är spårbart och de kan återanvända allt innehåll i nya artiklar, samtidigt som informationen snabbt når ut på produktionsgolvet. För medarbetarna i produktionen har det inneburit att de nu kommer åt informationen snabbare, de kan ta egna och snabbare beslut, de känner sig mer självständiga, de har blivit mer effektiva samt att de nu har ett samlat ställe för all produktionsrelaterad information de behöver för att kunna utföra sitt jobb.</p><p>Likaså har kvaliteten i underlagen ökat och på produkterna ut till kund. De har också fått en en säker distribution och hantering av information samt en större kontroll på tillverk-ningsprocessen.</p> / <p>Industries and governments stand before constant challenges to change and make their business processes more efficient. Information is now considered an actual production factor, and the appropriate availability of information is seen as crucial for the efficiency and effectiveness of individual tasks (Oehlmann, Thoben & Weber, 1997). With help of electronic work instructions process manufacturers has discovered an effective method for reducing variability, increasing consistency, and bringing new products to the market significantly faster (Coetzee, 2004).</p><p>The main objective of this report is to examine if Information Logistics through the use of electronic work instructions can affect the efficiency and quality in a company that uses electronic work instructions.</p><p>A case study has been carried out at HMS Industrial Networks AB, a world-leading supplier of field bus technology for automation devices. They have developed a system that handles the electronic work instructions, which they use through out the production plant. The system is called Production Resource Infomanagment System (PRIS).</p><p>The work in this report has examine how the employees experience that PRIS has affected their efficiency on a daily basis, as well as the quality of their work, in the information and on the products.</p><p>Interviews with users from both the documentation team and the production team have been carried out and the result shows that the use of PRIS and electronic work instructions have had major impacts in the company, for those who administrates and handle the production sheets as well as for the users on the production floor and in other parts of the company.</p><p>The result shows that Information Logistics can affect efficiency and quality in a company. The documentation team can work parallel in different production sheets, it’s easier to create production sheets and work with updates in them, all of the content in a production sheet can be reused in other articles and the distribution of information to the users is instant. For the production team, the use of electronic work instructions has decreased their time for information retrieval, they can now make their own decisions and in a faster way than before, they feel more independent, their efficiency has increased and they now only have one place for all the production related information they need in order to perform their jobs.</p><p>The quality of the information in the production sheets have also increased, as well as the quality of the products sent to customers. They have also got a secure distribution and in-formation management and improved process control.</p>

In dieser Doktorarbeit wird untersucht, wie Radiofrequenz-Identifizierung (RFID) zu einer Optimierung von Produktionsprozessen beitragen kann. In den ersten Kapiteln wird analysiert, welchen potenziellen Nutzen die Anwendung von RFID für Prozessoptimierungen ergibt und welche Herausforderungen daraus erwachsen. Diesbezüglich wurden sechs Fallstudien in Produktionsbetrieben durchgeführt, in denen die Autorin mögliche RFID-Szenarien untersuchte. Basierend auf den Fallstudien wertet sie sieben RFID-Anwendungsszenarien aus. Diese sind entweder ein Ersatz von Barcodes oder eine Anwendung, die nur mit Hilfe von RFID ermöglicht wird. Kap. 4 und 5 beschäftigen sich mit der Frage, wie RFID in die existierende IT-Infrastruktur eingebettet werden kann. Dafür evaluiert die Autorin zunächst generelle IT-Infrastrukturen bei verschiedenen, produzierenden Unternehmen, indem sie weitere sieben Fallstudien durchführt. Im Anschluss erstellt sie Leitlinien für eine Integration von RFID in existierende Softwaresysteme, bei der die in diesen Fallstudien gewonnenen Anforderungen erfüllt werden. Für die Produktion gibt es noch immer keine dedizierten Modelle für die Berechnung von quantifizierbaren und die Abschätzung von nicht-quantifizierbaren Nutzen und Kosten von RFID-Einführungen. Daher untersucht die Autorin in Kap. 6 quantifizierbare und nicht-quantifizierbare Kosten und Nutzen von RFID-Einführungen in der Produktion. In Kap. 7 untersucht die Autorin RFID-Anwendungen, die über die Unternehmensgrenzen hinausgehen: RFID kann, wenn es in inter-organisatorischen Systemen implementiert ist, einen Informationsaustausch in Echtzeit gewährleisten. Jedoch stellte sie bei den Unternehmen neben den unternehmensinternen auch in den inter-organisatorischen RFID-Szenarien Vorbehalte gegenüber RFID-Einführungen fest. Daher analysiert und identifiziert sie wichtige Faktoren für die Einführung von RFID in Lieferketten am Beispiel der Lieferkette der Automobilindustrie. / In this thesis, the author investigates how radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology can contribute to the optimization of production processes. In the first chapters the author analyzes potential benefits and challenges of using RFID to improve production processes. To this end, she conducted case studies at six German manufacturing enterprises in which she explores possible RFID scenarios. Based on the case studies she evaluates seven use cases for RFID. They are either a replacement of bar codes or an application that can only be realized using RFID. Furthermore, the autor evaluates which challenges the manufacturer has to face when applying RFID. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with the question of how RFID can be embedded into an existing IT infrastructure. For this the author first evaluates general IT infrastructures at diverse manufacturers by conducting seven additional case studies. She then designs guidelines for integrating the RFID requirements obtained from the case studies into existing software systems, showing where RFID data processing can fit in. The manufacturing domain still lacks dedicated models for evaluating costs and benefits of an RFID rollout especially concerning the intangible, non-quantifiable aspects of such an investment. Therefore, Chapter 6 presents such a model. In Chapter 7 the author looks beyond inter-enterprise RFID applications in manufacturing: RFID can ensure real-time information sharing when implemented in inter-organizational systems along the supply chain. However, besides challenges in intra-organizational scenarios of applying RFID in production processes, the author can also observe an inter-organizational reservation of embedding RFID in supply chains. Therefore, the author analyzes and identifies important determinants of adopting RFID in supply chains; taking the automotive as an example.

A evolução pela qual passou o chão-de-fábrica no último século transformou-o numa área estratégica para as empresas, por meio da qual é possível atender e satisfazer as necessidades dos seus clientes. Esse novo chão-de-fábrica gera hoje uma grande quantidade de dados nos controles do seu processo produtivo, os quais, em muitos casos, após seu uso imediato ou de curto prazo, acabam descartados ou armazenados inadequadamente, impossibilitando ou dificultando seu acesso. Esses dados, no entanto, podem vir a ter uma importante utilidade como matéria-prima para a geração de informações úteis à gestão do negócio. Aliado à necessidade que as empresas hoje têm de possuir um adequado sistema de medição de desempenho, é possível obter, a partir dos dados históricos do chão-de-fábrica, um bom conjunto de indicadores de desempenho para a área. Para isso, esses dados precisam ser modelados em sistemas especialmente projetados para esta função. Esses sistemas vêm sendo tratados como sistemas de apoio à decisão (SAD) ou Business Intelligence (BI). Como solução para os problemas acima, foi feita então uma revisão sobre os temas: sistemas de informação, ERP, sistemas de medição de desempenho, qualidade da informação, SAD/BI, bem como uma revisão sobre os trabalhos científicos relacionados ao tema da tese. Uma vez tendo sido esses conceitos consolidados, partiu-se para o desenvolvimento de um modelo dimensional de BI que se utilizou das ferramentas de Data Warehouse, On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) e Data Mining. O software utilizado foi o Analysis Services, pertencente ao banco de dados Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Em seguida, o modelo foi testado com dados reais de uma empresa do ramo metal-mecânico, tratada aqui como “empresa A". Por meio do modelo e dos dados reais, uma série de análises foram realizadas com o intuito de mostrar a contribuição, capacidade, flexibilidade e facilidade de uso do modelo, atingindo o objetivo proposto / The shop floor evolution in the last century has transformed it in a strategic area for the companies, through which is possible to reach and to satisfy the customers needs. This new shop floor generates today a great amount of data by the productive process controls, the ones which, in many cases, after its immediate use or in a short period, are discarded or stored inadequately, disabling or making impossible its access. These data, however, can come to have an important use as raw material for the production of useful information to the business administration. Together to the need that the companies have today to possess an appropriated performance measure system, it is possible to obtain, from the historical shop floor data, a good performance indicators group for the area. For that, these data must be modeled by systems specifically designed for this purpose. These systems have been treated as decision support systems (DSS) or Business Intelligence (BI). As solution for the problems above, it was made a review over the following themes: information systems, ERP, performance measure system, information quality, DSS/BI, as well as a review about the scientific works related to this thesis theme. Once consolidated these concepts, started the development of a BI dimensional model, that used Data Warehouse tools, On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Data Mining. It was used the Analysis Services software, belonged to the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. In the following, the model was tested with real data from a metal-mechanic company branch, called here as “company A". Through the model and of the real data, a series of analyses was accomplished with the intention of showing the model contribution, capacity, flexibility and use easiness, reaching the proposed objective

A evolução pela qual passou o chão-de-fábrica no último século transformou-o numa área estratégica para as empresas, por meio da qual é possível atender e satisfazer as necessidades dos seus clientes. Esse novo chão-de-fábrica gera hoje uma grande quantidade de dados nos controles do seu processo produtivo, os quais, em muitos casos, após seu uso imediato ou de curto prazo, acabam descartados ou armazenados inadequadamente, impossibilitando ou dificultando seu acesso. Esses dados, no entanto, podem vir a ter uma importante utilidade como matéria-prima para a geração de informações úteis à gestão do negócio. Aliado à necessidade que as empresas hoje têm de possuir um adequado sistema de medição de desempenho, é possível obter, a partir dos dados históricos do chão-de-fábrica, um bom conjunto de indicadores de desempenho para a área. Para isso, esses dados precisam ser modelados em sistemas especialmente projetados para esta função. Esses sistemas vêm sendo tratados como sistemas de apoio à decisão (SAD) ou Business Intelligence (BI). Como solução para os problemas acima, foi feita então uma revisão sobre os temas: sistemas de informação, ERP, sistemas de medição de desempenho, qualidade da informação, SAD/BI, bem como uma revisão sobre os trabalhos científicos relacionados ao tema da tese. Uma vez tendo sido esses conceitos consolidados, partiu-se para o desenvolvimento de um modelo dimensional de BI que se utilizou das ferramentas de Data Warehouse, On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) e Data Mining. O software utilizado foi o Analysis Services, pertencente ao banco de dados Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Em seguida, o modelo foi testado com dados reais de uma empresa do ramo metal-mecânico, tratada aqui como “empresa A”. Por meio do modelo e dos dados reais, uma série de análises foram realizadas com o intuito de mostrar a contribuição, capacidade, flexibilidade e facilidade de uso do modelo, atingindo o objetivo proposto / The shop floor evolution in the last century has transformed it in a strategic area for the companies, through which is possible to reach and to satisfy the customers needs. This new shop floor generates today a great amount of data by the productive process controls, the ones which, in many cases, after its immediate use or in a short period, are discarded or stored inadequately, disabling or making impossible its access. These data, however, can come to have an important use as raw material for the production of useful information to the business administration. Together to the need that the companies have today to possess an appropriated performance measure system, it is possible to obtain, from the historical shop floor data, a good performance indicators group for the area. For that, these data must be modeled by systems specifically designed for this purpose. These systems have been treated as decision support systems (DSS) or Business Intelligence (BI). As solution for the problems above, it was made a review over the following themes: information systems, ERP, performance measure system, information quality, DSS/BI, as well as a review about the scientific works related to this thesis theme. Once consolidated these concepts, started the development of a BI dimensional model, that used Data Warehouse tools, On Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) and Data Mining. It was used the Analysis Services software, belonged to the Microsoft SQL Server 2000 database. In the following, the model was tested with real data from a metal-mechanic company branch, called here as “company A”. Through the model and of the real data, a series of analyses was accomplished with the intention of showing the model contribution, capacity, flexibility and use easiness, reaching the proposed objective

This dissertation aims to contribute to the discourse on the future of manufacturing in Sweden. It is argued that the real threat does not come from lower wages in Eastern Europe and Asia. Rather it comes from an inability to make the most of existing manufacturing systems. The joint contribution of the underlying studies that this dissertation is based on provides compelling support for corroborating this line of thought. More important, however, is that in addition to showing that there is room for improvement, a lot of input is provided on how to act creatively for enhanced performance. The discussion on how to act mainly focuses on three research issues. First, enhancing continuous improvement capability. The continuous improvement abilities considered most important for Swedish manufacturers to develop are pointed out. That is, the ability to adopt a systematic and strategic approach to continuous improvements, the ability to lead the way towards continuous improvements, and finally the ability to involve customers and suppliers in continuous improvements. Furthermore, the likely positive performance impact of accomplishing this is clarified. Second, adopting the principles of lean manufacturing. Rather than reinforcing Taylorism, it is shown that lean manufacturing seems to contribute to the creation of sustainable work systems in Sweden. However, a broad process of change awaits the many companies that might aspire to transform their operations in this direction. In order to reap the full potential of this strategy, the work organisation, as well as management accounting and remuneration systems, must change, not only manufacturing processes. Third and finally, making more effective outsourcing decisions. It is shown that any positive effects of outsourcing manufacturing are more likely to be realized if concurrent initiatives are taken to develop the capability of the manufacturing function. The analysis also indicates a potential for taking a more strategic approach to outsourcing, i.e., outsourcing in order to increase focus on core manufacturing activities and take advantage of the supplier’s higher innovation capability. Moreover, a potential for selecting suppliers more appropriately is also indicated, such as by trying to achieve greater economies of scale. The chosen methodological approach has been to combine two large-scale surveys of representative samples of Swedish engineering industry companies with two multiple case studies. The surveys measured continuous improvement behaviours, lean manufacturing and outsourcing, and provides descriptive statistics as well as tests of theoretical assumptions. The case studies provide a deeper understanding of researched issues. One was designed to illustrate how the Balanced Scorecard may enhance the continuous improvement capability level, and the other, to hearing some voices of the empirical field. / QC 20100525

The increasing importance of computer leads to develop new manufacturing methods. One of the most important example / &ldquo / unmanned shop floor&rdquo / model aims, the mankind can work in jobs that they can be more efficient and more comfortable. As the base of this model, in Middle East Technical University Computer Integrated Manufacturing Laboratory (METUCIM) &ldquo / Agent Version 1.1&rdquo / system is developed. Windows Distributed Internet Applications (DNA) modeling technique is used for the software development. In the developed system, by using web pages, one can give work orders to the flexible manufacturing cell in METUCIM. The manufacturing capabilities of the cell are limited by the capabilities of CNC Lathe and CNC Milling machine that exist in the system. By the developed agent based dynamic scheduling method, it is prevented to be only an experimental system for the manufacturing cell. The real manufacturing environment is adapted to the cell that it is possible to give unlimited number of work orders. The work orders can be queued and manufactured according to their &ldquo / priorities&rdquo / . By the &ldquo / web-cam&rdquo / application the given work orders can be watched from the web site so the system reliability is increased for the engineer. In the real manufacturing environment it is very frequent that the &ldquo / urgent part&rdquo / is needed to manufacture. In this system it is possible to give &ldquo / urgent orders&rdquo / for these situations.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:51:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4944.pdf: 2439121 bytes, checksum: 2f12176e338497454472f3aa726804be (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-03-04 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / Companies have been considering the responsiveness as a competitive criterion, trying to meet current market that requires simultaneously quality, efficiency, punctuality and customization. So, the lead time reduction becomes a strategic issue for the manufacturing management, considering that improvement programs on lead time reduction have been widely approached by Lean Manufacturing and Quick Response Manufacturing. Studies on improvements on shop floor parameters in order to reduce the lead time were addressed in numerous studies, such as the work of Godinho Filho and Uzsoy (2008a). Due to resource constraints existing in practice, there is a need to investigate which variable can be prioritized in the development of improvement projects, due to their potential for reducing the lead time. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap in the literature and from the business, expanding Godinho Filho and Uzsoy (2008a) work and proposing a method for selecting improvement programs aimed at reducing the lead time. To achieve this goal, we conducted a literature review, a case study on a company of the aviation industry, as well as simulations using a model created from the System Dynamics approach and Factory Physics. In addition to outlining the research question of this work, the case study aims to present to the reader an application of the method proposed. Thus, for the environment studied, i.e. a bottleneck single machine of a machining process, the result of applying the seven steps of the method was the potential improvement of 84.63% on lead time, which can be obtained with a design 1373% improvement in mean time between failures, requiring an effort of 5880 h. As an alternative to the company, a 34.76% reduction in lead time would also be possible through the investment of 1960h working for an improvement of 72% in the coefficient of variation of the repair time. / A responsividade tem sido considerada pelas empresas um critério competitivo, na tentativa de atender ao mercado atual, que exige simultaneamente qualidade, agilidade, pontualidade e customização. Assim, a redução do lead time se torna um tema estratégico para a gerência da produção, sendo que, ações de melhorias para a redução do lead time têm sido abordadas destacadamente pelo Lean Manufacturing e pelo Quick Response Manufacturing. Estudos sobre melhorias em variáveis do chão de fábrica com o objetivo de reduzir o lead time foram abordados em inúmeros estudos, como por exemplo, no trabalho de Godinho Filho e Uzsoy (2008a). Devido às restrições de recursos existentes na prática, surge a necessidade de se investigar qual variável pode ser priorizada na elaboração de projetos de melhoria, devido ao seu potencial de redução do lead time. Para tanto, o presente trabalho visa atender a essa lacuna da literatura e do meio empresarial, ampliando o trabalho de Godinho Filho e Uzsoy (2008a) e propondo um método para a seleção de programas de melhoria que objetivem a redução do lead time. Para atingir esse objetivo, foi realizada uma análise da literatura, um estudo de caso em uma empresa do setor aeronáutico, assim como simulações utilizando um modelo criado a partir das abordagens System Dynamics e Factory Physics. Além de delinear a questão de pesquisa desse trabalho, o estudo de caso visa apresentar ao leitor uma aplicação do método aqui proposto. Assim, para o ambiente estudado, ou seja, uma máquina única gargalo de um processo de usinagem, o resultado da aplicação dos sete passos do método foi a potencial melhoria de 84,63% no lead time, que pode ser obtida com um projeto de melhoria de 1373% no tempo médio entre falhas, demandando um esforço de 5880 h. Como uma alternativa para a empresa, uma redução de 34,76% no lead time também seria possível por meio do investimento de 1960h de trabalho para uma melhoria de 72% no coeficiente de variação do tempo de reparo.

Näringsliv och offentlig sektor står inför ständiga utmaningar att förändra och effektivisera sin verksamhet. Idag ses information som en verklig produktionsfaktor och åtkomst till lämplig informationen ses som en nödvändighet för uppnå effektivitet och produktivitet i de individuella aktiviteterna (Oehlmann, Thoben &amp; Weber, 1997). Med hjälp av elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner på produktionsgolvet har tillverkande industrier hittat en effektiv metod för att minska variationerna, öka kvaliteten, förbättra kommunikationen, minimera kostnaderna och snabbare få ut produkterna på marknaden, den s.k. Time-to-market (Coetzee, 2004). Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om Informationslogistik genom införandet av elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner kan påverka effektiviteten och kvaliteten i ett företag vilket använder sig av elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner. En fallföretagsstudie har genomförts på HMS Industrial Networks AB, en världsledande leverantör av fältbuss-teknologi för automationsutrustning. De har utvecklat ett IT-system för att hantera elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner vilket de använder fullt ut i sin tillverkning. Mer praktiskt har uppsatsens arbete handlat om att undersöka hur de anställda upplever att det påverkat deras effektivitet i det dagliga arbetet, såväl som kvaliteten i arbetet, informationen och på produkterna. Intervjuer med användare från dokumentationsteamet och produktionsmedarbetarna har gjorts och resultatet visar att användandet av PRIS och elektroniska arbetsinstruktioner har gett en rad effekter i verksamheten, både för dem vilka administrerar och hanterar produktionsunderlagen såväl som för de berörda användarna på produktionsgolvet och i övriga delar i organisationen. Resultatet visar att Informationslogistik i allra högsta grad kan påverka effektiviteten och kvaliteten i ett företag. Dokumentationsteamet kan arbeta parallellt i de olika produktionsunderlagen, det är enklare att lägga upp ett underlag och hantera uppdateringar, innehållet är spårbart och de kan återanvända allt innehåll i nya artiklar, samtidigt som informationen snabbt når ut på produktionsgolvet. För medarbetarna i produktionen har det inneburit att de nu kommer åt informationen snabbare, de kan ta egna och snabbare beslut, de känner sig mer självständiga, de har blivit mer effektiva samt att de nu har ett samlat ställe för all produktionsrelaterad information de behöver för att kunna utföra sitt jobb. Likaså har kvaliteten i underlagen ökat och på produkterna ut till kund. De har också fått en en säker distribution och hantering av information samt en större kontroll på tillverk-ningsprocessen. / Industries and governments stand before constant challenges to change and make their business processes more efficient. Information is now considered an actual production factor, and the appropriate availability of information is seen as crucial for the efficiency and effectiveness of individual tasks (Oehlmann, Thoben &amp; Weber, 1997). With help of electronic work instructions process manufacturers has discovered an effective method for reducing variability, increasing consistency, and bringing new products to the market significantly faster (Coetzee, 2004). The main objective of this report is to examine if Information Logistics through the use of electronic work instructions can affect the efficiency and quality in a company that uses electronic work instructions. A case study has been carried out at HMS Industrial Networks AB, a world-leading supplier of field bus technology for automation devices. They have developed a system that handles the electronic work instructions, which they use through out the production plant. The system is called Production Resource Infomanagment System (PRIS). The work in this report has examine how the employees experience that PRIS has affected their efficiency on a daily basis, as well as the quality of their work, in the information and on the products. Interviews with users from both the documentation team and the production team have been carried out and the result shows that the use of PRIS and electronic work instructions have had major impacts in the company, for those who administrates and handle the production sheets as well as for the users on the production floor and in other parts of the company. The result shows that Information Logistics can affect efficiency and quality in a company. The documentation team can work parallel in different production sheets, it’s easier to create production sheets and work with updates in them, all of the content in a production sheet can be reused in other articles and the distribution of information to the users is instant. For the production team, the use of electronic work instructions has decreased their time for information retrieval, they can now make their own decisions and in a faster way than before, they feel more independent, their efficiency has increased and they now only have one place for all the production related information they need in order to perform their jobs. The quality of the information in the production sheets have also increased, as well as the quality of the products sent to customers. They have also got a secure distribution and in-formation management and improved process control.

Ce travail de recherche met en avant l'intérêt qu'offre la simulation en ligne comme outil d'aide à la décision, outil centré sur le pilotage d'atelier vis-à-vis d'événements se produisant en temps réel et pour un horizon à très court terme. Après avoir présenté le contexte général du pilotage des systèmes de production, nous avons étudié les outils existants et utilisés industriellement pour l'exploitation de la production, de même que les outils d'aide au pilotage permettant d'assurer le respect optimal des objectifs fixés. Après un travail préalable sur la simulation hors ligne, nous proposons de coupler un outil de simulation en ligne à un outil d'exécution d'atelier de type MES afin de piloter en temps réel le processus de production. Une démarche de modélisation faisant appel de façon complémentaire à deux approches, analytique et simulatoire, est finalement mise en place. Nous mettons en exergue l'utilisation de la simulation de flux en ligne pour aider au pilotage d'un processus opérationnel. Ainsi nous modélisons le processus de pilotage en temps réel afin de décrire les fonctions requises. Pour cela, nous utilisons différentes stratégies d'utilisation des simulateurs en ligne pour le pilotage, avec un ou deux modèles et avec plusieurs méthodes d'utilisation de ces modèles. La simulation en ligne apporte alors des informations objectives sur les conséquences à court terme d'un événement, ainsi que sur les divers scenarii de correction envisagés. Pour mieux convaincre les industriels de l'intérêt de la simulation en ligne, nous présentons des solutions pratiques aux spécifications et besoins énoncés précédemment en nous appuyant sur une plate-forme expérimentale. / This research work highlights the interest of online simulation as a decision support tool. This tool is focused on workshop control in relation with real time and short-term events. Online simulation enables to analyze and compare scenarios affecting the production, such as failures or unexpected orders. Moreover online simulation allows a very short term projection in the future in order to quantify the consequences of some unexpected event: we call it projection simulation. Finally, online simulation is helpful to choose the solution that will reduce the impact of a critical event, through the simulation of several scenarios. To conclude, online simulation is one the most interesting decision support tool in workshop piloting. However, there are few industrial applications in manufacturing systems. The first part of this research work introduces the overall context of production system management. The different generic functions of controlling the production, the modes of piloting and the evolutions of workshop are detailed. We also explain piloting typologies according to their reactivity. In the second part, we study the existing software tools used in industry for the operation of production, and support tools that ensure optimal compliance in regard to the objectives. After a preliminary work on the offline simulation, we propose to couple an online simulation tool with a type MES delivery tool in order to control the production process in real time. A modeling approach using two complementary approaches, an analytical one and simulation, is then introduced. The objective of the third part is to emphasize the use of online flow simulation to assist in operating a production process. Thus we model the process in real time to describe the required functions. Therefore we try out different strategies of use of online simulators, through one or two models and several methods of using these models. Online simulation then provides realistic information on the short-term consequences of an event, as well as on the different ways of correcting the scenarios. To convince industry of the relevance of online simulation, the fourth part presents practical solutions to the specifications and requirements previously stated. An experimental platform helped us validate the concept of online simulation as piloting support tool, but also underline the difficulties of development.