No description available.

The shoe manufacturing industry has undergone a revolution during the last 50 years, due to the introduction of task specific machinery. Great technological strides have been made in the areas of shoe manufacture prior to actual component assembly. Computer systems are now becoming the norm for the design of shoes for today's market place. Technological innovations have also started to be applied in the assembly and construction processes of modern shoes. Computer controlled cutting machines calculate the optimum usage of leather from any given hide, new machines allow decorative stitch patterns to be associated with a given shape and size of component and automatically stitched on to the presented workpiece. However the majority of assembly operations have remained predominantly manual with technology playing a secondary role to the human operator due to complexities either in manipulation, control or sensing. In these machines electronic and mechanical innovations have been used to add new features to often simple machines and in some cases to simplify some of the more complex operations, thus increasing productivity but reducing the required dexterity and knowledge of an operator. Modern preferences in industry are to utilise fully automated machines, that are as operator independent as possible, thus improving quality, consistency and production speed whilst at the same time reducing production costs.Due to the nature of the shoe manufacturing industry and the complex operations that have to be performed in order to construct a shoe, machinery manufacturers who have ventured into this field of automation have generally struggled to gain acceptance from the shoe makers as the machinery is generally complex and slow in operation. This together with the fact that a large proportion of the world's main footwear production is centred in the far east, with their correspondingly low labour costs, has held back the automation of the shoe manufacturing industry.This thesis examines a selection of operations encountered in the construction of a typical shoe. These include operations for processing single flat component parts as well as more complex three-dimensional operations encountered when lasting and soling a shoe. The aim of the research was to develop an understanding of processes encountered in specific areas within the shoe manufacturing industry in order to identify areas where further advances in automation could be achieved. This understanding has been applied to produce proposals and in some cases hardware, to allow for the development of working systems.

In the face of rapid development in information technology coupled with a growing dynamism in global markets, manufacturing systems have to be re-constructed for short term or long term goal. Such innovations promise to lead to a new competitive stage, which typically involve design of function, information and behaviour of systems. In order to design the system, simulation has often been chosen. However, simulation has proved limited and fails to aid design of such a complex systems because of consuming much computing time and cost, especially when modelling larger systems. Thus, there is a need to seek a new approach, in a way that results in simulating such a large manufacturing system with less demand on computing time and cost. This study researches into a hybrid modelling approach to minimise these limitations. It includes proposing a hybrid modelling methodology and developing a hybrid modelling tool. The methodology integrates simulation and metamodelling techniques. The metamodel employed in the study possesses, not only characteristics of conventional metamodels in terms of representing relationships in quantity, but also in time lapse. This is the originality of the study and the significant distinction between this research and application of metamodelling in conventional ways. The hybrid modelling tool is developed to support and demonstrate the identified hybrid methodology. LISP has been used as the software language for the hybrid modelling tool. The result of this work concludes that the hybrid modelling approach is capable of simulating a complex manufacturing system with less demands on the computer. The work reported in this thesis has been carried out in conjunction with the EPSRC research project, Hierarchical Manufacturing System Modelling (HMSM) (GR/F96549), to produce an Integrated Design and Modelling Methodology (IDEM). The project was initially a collaborative research program including Loughborough University of Technology (LUT), Morris Crane Ltd., of Loughborough and GEC Large Machine, of Rugby. The experience of these collaborators has proved most valuable in supporting the research, and have provided a cross section of views and comments. The research reported in this thesis is set in the context of the HMSM Research group at Loughborough.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Mechanical Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Also available in print.

Thesis (PhD) -- University of South Australia, 1999

The continued assimilation of advanced computing and information technologies in the workplace in the midst of rapidly changing socioeconomic conditions has led many corporations to transform their corporate culture and structure. These profound changes are implicating corporate functions such as planning, design, manufacturing, and marketing. A significant form of corporate re-structuring has been in the computer and information technology mediated integration of these functions which is sometimes labeled Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). Fundamental questions are provoked regarding the reshaping of these emerging modes and relations of production. Do these developments represent a departure from traditional Taylorist or Fordist workplace operations and organization? Are these emerging modes of work which generally are interwoven with Japanese inspired quality improvement programs and associated manufacturing methods producing a more human-centered workplace? Do these shifts in corporate re-structuring support the possible unfolding of forms of human-centered workplace democracy? To critically inquire and address the above questions, a case study was conducted involving a large manufacturing firm which has been undergoing a radical re-structuring of all its corporate operations. The case study method involves an analysis of the internal discourse(s) and practice(s) of an emerging manufacturing facility called the Factory of the Future (FOF) in the context of a changing corporate culture mediated by computer and information technologies and changing organizational practices. Many sources of information were appropriated to construct a collage of textual material in order to present FOF's unique genealogy and to provide a detailed description of the emerging phenomenon of CIM. Among these were internal documents, videos, and interviews conducted with factory and office workers. Based on a critical interpretation of the case study findings a number of provisional conclusions were reached and may be summarized as follows: • Certain neo-Taylorist and neo-Fordist modes of production are emerging both in the factory and office as the transformation of the corporation proceeds toward a CIM mode of operation. • More human-centered organizational practices have marked the changing corporate culture although they are at times subject to conflicts and contradictions. • Managerial power has grown in the midst of computer and information mediated systems, even though worker participation and involvement in work related decisions has also been enhanced.