<p>More than forty years has passed since the start of the North Sea oil and gas developments. On the managerial side of the projects there have been large cost overruns, project planning and control measures developed to avoid these, initiatives to improve the industry’s competitiveness in the North Sea, as well as measures to improve the supply chains contribution in the projects. We have seen a focus first and foremost on the CAPEX side of the projects, which still is the public measure of a ‘project’s’ success as seen in medias coverage. However, the operation side of the project has been given extended focus, especially through life-cycle cost measures, and life cycle value measures trying to balance out the CAPEX, OPEX and income sides of the project to obtain the most commercial value enhancement from each project. At the same time there has been an increasing focus on the core business among the project demand and supply chain actors in this industry as in most other industries.</p><p>Our belief is that this necessitates an enhanced focus on the project demand and supply chains of the industry, both for the projects development and operations phases. A question is whether the project demand and supply chain developments are approached appropriately according to the characteristics of the industry’s project context?</p>

More than forty years has passed since the start of the North Sea oil and gas developments. On the managerial side of the projects there have been large cost overruns, project planning and control measures developed to avoid these, initiatives to improve the industry’s competitiveness in the North Sea, as well as measures to improve the supply chains contribution in the projects. We have seen a focus first and foremost on the CAPEX side of the projects, which still is the public measure of a ‘project’s’ success as seen in medias coverage. However, the operation side of the project has been given extended focus, especially through life-cycle cost measures, and life cycle value measures trying to balance out the CAPEX, OPEX and income sides of the project to obtain the most commercial value enhancement from each project. At the same time there has been an increasing focus on the core business among the project demand and supply chain actors in this industry as in most other industries. Our belief is that this necessitates an enhanced focus on the project demand and supply chains of the industry, both for the projects development and operations phases. A question is whether the project demand and supply chain developments are approached appropriately according to the characteristics of the industry’s project context?

<p>The main objective of the work reported in this thesis has been to study and develop methodologies that can improve the communication gap between design and manufacturing systems. The emphasis has been on searching for the possible means of modeling and optimizing processes in an integrated design and manufacturing system environment using the combined capabilities (hybrids) of computational intelligence tools particularly that of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. </p><p>Within the last two decades, a trend of interest towards use of computers has been observed in almost all business activities. This has forced the industrial business to undergo dynamic profound changes with automation through information and communication technology being on the forefront of business success. Business in manufacturing engineering is no exceptional to this trend. Several functions in the manufacturing field such as design, process planning and manufacturing have enjoyed the recent advances in information and communication technology. However, the earlier isolated automation in each function have created a significant hindrance to smooth flow of information particularly because there has been a very high system incompatibility among the computerized systems.</p><p>One of the most difficult problems in modern manufacturing is the instability of production systems to mimic the basis human capabilities such as adjusting appropriately to the ever-changing environment. From past studies, it has been possible to witness that advances in theory and application methodology of artificial intelligence techniques can overcome many of the obstacles existing in manufacturing discipline. Today, the emergence of advanced computational methods in the artificial intelligence world such as genetic algorithms and neural networks, both inspired by the natural evolutionary process, has created a new field of research and application referred to as computational intelligence (CI) approach.</p><p>Accordingly, this thesis focuses on the application of computational intelligence tools from two main perspectives. On the one hand, instead of the isolated automation of each manufacturing function, the CI techniques have been considered as powerful tools that allow all functions to operate within a fully integrated and intelligent manufacturing system. Particularly, since process planning, is the main linking element between design and manufacturing functions, an automated and optimized process planning function creates a much more powerful environment that leads to the optimization of the whole process. Particularly, being able to integrate feature recognition and operation sequence optimization is an important element in the manufacturing system chain that can highly contribute to the automation and flexibility of the integrated design and manufacturing system. On the other hand, the computational intelligence techniques themselves have certain weakness of their own in solving the complex manufacturing process as a stand-alone form. In a hybrid form, however, they can either support or complement each other.</p><p>To realize these two points, this thesis has focused on the development of theories and application methodologies of hybrid computational intelligence systems to model and optimize complex manufacturing processes. The aim is to exploit the strong side of one computational intelligence tool and support or complement the weakness of the other. To this effect, qualitative analysis and reasoning of computational intelligence based hybrid systems are comprehensively discussed. The development theoretical backgrounds and methodologies are further used in key problem areas of the manufacturing system such as operation sequencing, machining economics analysis using multi-objective optimization approach and modeling and optimization of unstructured data collected from a non-conventional machining environment (electro-discharge machining). The results from the hybrid CI application to model and optimize the electro-discharge machine show that the methodology is also important not only to the industrial activities using this technology, but also promotes further research and application in the discipline. Though the focus in this thesis has been on discrete part manufacturing industries, it is important to mention that the facts, the developed methodologies and the discussed issues in the study are applicable to other industrial businesses. </p>

<p>There exist today a large number of enterprise models or enterprise modelling approaches. In a study of standards and project developed models there are two approaches: CIMOSA “The Open Systems Architecture for CIM” and GERAM, “Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture”, which show a system orientation that can be further followed as interesting research topics for a system theory oriented approach for enterprise models.</p><p>In the selection of system theories, manufacturing system theory is interesting and promising to adapt or extend to further synthesising and usage of enterprise models.</p><p>Today the design and creation of an enterprise model are based on a given architecture and available even though this is not always practical. When it comes to execution and operational phases of the model, the possibilities are more limited.</p><p><b>Manufacturing system theory</b> [Bjørke 1995] was developed to describe system-oriented approaches to manufacturing systems including product configuration and design processes. This includes a large number of disciplines like mechanics, cybernetics, material science etc. on the physical side and planning activities, economical aspects and optimisation processes on the human side. The theory is based on geometry as the foundation and the methods within the theory are related to concepts of connections. The analysis of the manufacturing systems is the prime area for the usage of this theory and is important in order to bring a science base into manufacturing. But the theory can be used in a more generic way.</p><p><b>The theory of logic</b> [Møller 1995] relates also to the concept of connections, being expressed as logic arguments. The theory is generic and has been applied to different model approaches e.g. product configuration, scheduling and planning, railway logic control. This theory of logic is also fully applicable in manufacturing system theory. The theory of logic and the manufacturing systems theory are both based on geometry or more precisely expressed the geometric funded theory of connections.</p><p>The main requirement for the enterprise model architecture to be used together with the theory of logic is that it can be divided into a 3D orthogonal space with unique defined axis. In this work a 3D space based upon product, process and organisational axis is preferred, also called the PPO-model. In this study combination of the enterprise modelling architecture, GERAM ISO 15704, and the theory of logic are used to show how systems theory can be used in control and management of operational phases of enterprise models. The usage of logic theory within enterprise modelling gives solutions on management and control issues in an operational phase of the product model. If is important to emphasis that this is not an approach for populating or transfer of operative data into a model. The integration of theses theories are illustrated through examples that show modelled entities of an enterprise in operation within areas of:</p><p> - Execution of operative manufacturing unit</p><p> - Organisational and strategic issues</p><p> - Enterprise planning with aspects of uncertainty</p><p>An own PPO model for feature based integration within product design and process planning has been developed to show that alternative more simple and detailed architectures also can be used.</p>

The main objective of the work reported in this thesis has been to study and develop methodologies that can improve the communication gap between design and manufacturing systems. The emphasis has been on searching for the possible means of modeling and optimizing processes in an integrated design and manufacturing system environment using the combined capabilities (hybrids) of computational intelligence tools particularly that of artificial neural networks and genetic algorithms. Within the last two decades, a trend of interest towards use of computers has been observed in almost all business activities. This has forced the industrial business to undergo dynamic profound changes with automation through information and communication technology being on the forefront of business success. Business in manufacturing engineering is no exceptional to this trend. Several functions in the manufacturing field such as design, process planning and manufacturing have enjoyed the recent advances in information and communication technology. However, the earlier isolated automation in each function have created a significant hindrance to smooth flow of information particularly because there has been a very high system incompatibility among the computerized systems. One of the most difficult problems in modern manufacturing is the instability of production systems to mimic the basis human capabilities such as adjusting appropriately to the ever-changing environment. From past studies, it has been possible to witness that advances in theory and application methodology of artificial intelligence techniques can overcome many of the obstacles existing in manufacturing discipline. Today, the emergence of advanced computational methods in the artificial intelligence world such as genetic algorithms and neural networks, both inspired by the natural evolutionary process, has created a new field of research and application referred to as computational intelligence (CI) approach. Accordingly, this thesis focuses on the application of computational intelligence tools from two main perspectives. On the one hand, instead of the isolated automation of each manufacturing function, the CI techniques have been considered as powerful tools that allow all functions to operate within a fully integrated and intelligent manufacturing system. Particularly, since process planning, is the main linking element between design and manufacturing functions, an automated and optimized process planning function creates a much more powerful environment that leads to the optimization of the whole process. Particularly, being able to integrate feature recognition and operation sequence optimization is an important element in the manufacturing system chain that can highly contribute to the automation and flexibility of the integrated design and manufacturing system. On the other hand, the computational intelligence techniques themselves have certain weakness of their own in solving the complex manufacturing process as a stand-alone form. In a hybrid form, however, they can either support or complement each other. To realize these two points, this thesis has focused on the development of theories and application methodologies of hybrid computational intelligence systems to model and optimize complex manufacturing processes. The aim is to exploit the strong side of one computational intelligence tool and support or complement the weakness of the other. To this effect, qualitative analysis and reasoning of computational intelligence based hybrid systems are comprehensively discussed. The development theoretical backgrounds and methodologies are further used in key problem areas of the manufacturing system such as operation sequencing, machining economics analysis using multi-objective optimization approach and modeling and optimization of unstructured data collected from a non-conventional machining environment (electro-discharge machining). The results from the hybrid CI application to model and optimize the electro-discharge machine show that the methodology is also important not only to the industrial activities using this technology, but also promotes further research and application in the discipline. Though the focus in this thesis has been on discrete part manufacturing industries, it is important to mention that the facts, the developed methodologies and the discussed issues in the study are applicable to other industrial businesses.

There exist today a large number of enterprise models or enterprise modelling approaches. In a study of standards and project developed models there are two approaches: CIMOSA “The Open Systems Architecture for CIM” and GERAM, “Generalised Enterprise Reference Architecture”, which show a system orientation that can be further followed as interesting research topics for a system theory oriented approach for enterprise models. In the selection of system theories, manufacturing system theory is interesting and promising to adapt or extend to further synthesising and usage of enterprise models. Today the design and creation of an enterprise model are based on a given architecture and available even though this is not always practical. When it comes to execution and operational phases of the model, the possibilities are more limited. <b>Manufacturing system theory</b> [Bjørke 1995] was developed to describe system-oriented approaches to manufacturing systems including product configuration and design processes. This includes a large number of disciplines like mechanics, cybernetics, material science etc. on the physical side and planning activities, economical aspects and optimisation processes on the human side. The theory is based on geometry as the foundation and the methods within the theory are related to concepts of connections. The analysis of the manufacturing systems is the prime area for the usage of this theory and is important in order to bring a science base into manufacturing. But the theory can be used in a more generic way. <b>The theory of logic</b> [Møller 1995] relates also to the concept of connections, being expressed as logic arguments. The theory is generic and has been applied to different model approaches e.g. product configuration, scheduling and planning, railway logic control. This theory of logic is also fully applicable in manufacturing system theory. The theory of logic and the manufacturing systems theory are both based on geometry or more precisely expressed the geometric funded theory of connections. The main requirement for the enterprise model architecture to be used together with the theory of logic is that it can be divided into a 3D orthogonal space with unique defined axis. In this work a 3D space based upon product, process and organisational axis is preferred, also called the PPO-model. In this study combination of the enterprise modelling architecture, GERAM ISO 15704, and the theory of logic are used to show how systems theory can be used in control and management of operational phases of enterprise models. The usage of logic theory within enterprise modelling gives solutions on management and control issues in an operational phase of the product model. If is important to emphasis that this is not an approach for populating or transfer of operative data into a model. The integration of theses theories are illustrated through examples that show modelled entities of an enterprise in operation within areas of: - Execution of operative manufacturing unit - Organisational and strategic issues - Enterprise planning with aspects of uncertainty An own PPO model for feature based integration within product design and process planning has been developed to show that alternative more simple and detailed architectures also can be used.

<p>Manufacturing companies find themselves, whether they like it or not, in a more global and changing reality. Fiercer competition, dynamic markets, new consumer habits, stronger environmental regulations, and new technological possibilities, are forcing manufacturing companies to change. The practical effects for European manufacturers are 1) new and innovative products, 2) global value chains, 3) automation, and, 4) a shift from products to solutions. This research is addressing the changes needed for operations in a single enterprise (a group of departments, a plant, or a group of closely located plants), to take advantage of the competitive situation. </p><p>For such “internal” operations, the new challenges require changes both in technology and practices. The main concern of this research is the practices, and how a reengineering of manufacturing and office operations can improve performance. The choice of scope is based on the assumption that operations activities are a major source for competitiveness. To reengineer operations activities in processes rather than functions, and to implement best practices wherever appropriate, can therefore provide dramatic competitive improvements.</p><p>The overall objective of this research is to:</p><p>• establish enterprise reengineering as an approach that enables manufacturing enterprises to achieve fit between market requirements and operations capabilities.</p><p>Enterprise reengineering is viewed as model-based and strategy driven approach that enables manufacturers to realise the “soft” or infrastructural aspects of an operations strategy. To support such reengineering efforts, enterprises are viewed not only from a process perspective but also from a resource, materials, information, organisations, and control perspective. Modelling and analysing enterprises from these perspectives can support their effort to implement best practices, and ensure that the practices are combined in a way that supports the overall business strategy.</p><p>The overall objective is divided into more specific objectives:</p><p>• To develop a strategic framework for enterprise reengineering </p><p>• To develop a consistent and practical enterprise reengineering methodology to support the formulation and realisation of operations strategies</p><p>• To develop architecture for conceptual enterprise modelling that ensures a coherent, decomposed, and holistic picture of enterprise operations</p><p>• To establish “flow manufacturing” as a (optional) best practice programme for enterprise reengineering</p><p>Together, the strategic framework, the methodology, and the modelling architecture should enable enterprises to achieve their performance objectives through an enterprise reengineering effort. In cases where an enterprise mapping and analysis concludes that improvements in manufacturing planning and control, order management, layout and flow, or inventory, should be performed, the flow manufacturing programme should provide practical guidance and a set of principles to support reengineering.</p><p>In order to achieve these objectives, the following issues are reviewed in this thesis:</p><p>1) operations strategy, 2) enterprise reengineering, 3) flow manufacturing, 4) enterprise modelling, and, 5) change management. Based on these literature studies, a strategic framework, a methodology, a modelling architecture for enterprise reengineering and a flow manufacturing programme are proposed.</p><p>The major outcome of this research is an enterprise reengineering methodology, which includes strategic planning, and operations mapping, analysis, design, and implementation. The methodology consists of the following models, principles, and tools:</p><p>• A operations strategy checklist</p><p>• Four flow manufacturing design principles</p><p>• An architecture for conceptual enterprise modelling</p><p>• Seven change management principles</p><p>• A procedural guide for enterprise reengineering</p><p>• An operations performance audit sheet</p><p>• A five-step approach to flow manufacturing reengineering</p><p>The research is based on a case study of HÅG Fast, a very successful enterprise reengineering project carried out in 1991-1992. The case study demonstrates the usefulness of the methodology to analyse and understand enterprises, and the dramatic improvements in performance that can be achieved by implementing flow manufacturing practices. In addition, the enterprise reengineering methodology has been proved useful in several field studies.</p>

No description available.

Manufacturing companies find themselves, whether they like it or not, in a more global and changing reality. Fiercer competition, dynamic markets, new consumer habits, stronger environmental regulations, and new technological possibilities, are forcing manufacturing companies to change. The practical effects for European manufacturers are 1) new and innovative products, 2) global value chains, 3) automation, and, 4) a shift from products to solutions. This research is addressing the changes needed for operations in a single enterprise (a group of departments, a plant, or a group of closely located plants), to take advantage of the competitive situation. For such “internal” operations, the new challenges require changes both in technology and practices. The main concern of this research is the practices, and how a reengineering of manufacturing and office operations can improve performance. The choice of scope is based on the assumption that operations activities are a major source for competitiveness. To reengineer operations activities in processes rather than functions, and to implement best practices wherever appropriate, can therefore provide dramatic competitive improvements. The overall objective of this research is to: • establish enterprise reengineering as an approach that enables manufacturing enterprises to achieve fit between market requirements and operations capabilities. Enterprise reengineering is viewed as model-based and strategy driven approach that enables manufacturers to realise the “soft” or infrastructural aspects of an operations strategy. To support such reengineering efforts, enterprises are viewed not only from a process perspective but also from a resource, materials, information, organisations, and control perspective. Modelling and analysing enterprises from these perspectives can support their effort to implement best practices, and ensure that the practices are combined in a way that supports the overall business strategy. The overall objective is divided into more specific objectives: • To develop a strategic framework for enterprise reengineering • To develop a consistent and practical enterprise reengineering methodology to support the formulation and realisation of operations strategies • To develop architecture for conceptual enterprise modelling that ensures a coherent, decomposed, and holistic picture of enterprise operations • To establish “flow manufacturing” as a (optional) best practice programme for enterprise reengineering Together, the strategic framework, the methodology, and the modelling architecture should enable enterprises to achieve their performance objectives through an enterprise reengineering effort. In cases where an enterprise mapping and analysis concludes that improvements in manufacturing planning and control, order management, layout and flow, or inventory, should be performed, the flow manufacturing programme should provide practical guidance and a set of principles to support reengineering. In order to achieve these objectives, the following issues are reviewed in this thesis: 1) operations strategy, 2) enterprise reengineering, 3) flow manufacturing, 4) enterprise modelling, and, 5) change management. Based on these literature studies, a strategic framework, a methodology, a modelling architecture for enterprise reengineering and a flow manufacturing programme are proposed. The major outcome of this research is an enterprise reengineering methodology, which includes strategic planning, and operations mapping, analysis, design, and implementation. The methodology consists of the following models, principles, and tools: • A operations strategy checklist • Four flow manufacturing design principles • An architecture for conceptual enterprise modelling • Seven change management principles • A procedural guide for enterprise reengineering • An operations performance audit sheet • A five-step approach to flow manufacturing reengineering The research is based on a case study of HÅG Fast, a very successful enterprise reengineering project carried out in 1991-1992. The case study demonstrates the usefulness of the methodology to analyse and understand enterprises, and the dramatic improvements in performance that can be achieved by implementing flow manufacturing practices. In addition, the enterprise reengineering methodology has been proved useful in several field studies.

No description available.