Fundamentals of Modern Manufacturing Chapter One: Introduction and Overview of Manufacturing

1.1 What is Manufacturing?

Manufacturing is defined as the application of physical and chemical processes that later the geometry, properties and/or appearance of a given starting material, giving it additional value; it is always carried out as a sequence of operations. These processes require a combination of machinery, tools, power, and labor.

Primary Industries cultivate and exploit natural resources. Secondary Industries take these resources and convert them to consumer and capital goods. Tertiary Industries represent the service industry that sells these goods.

Capital Goods are purchased by companies to create Consumer Goods or provide services. Consumer Goods are purchased directly by the consumer. Other manufactured items include materials, components, and supplies. Discrete Items are assembled from individual parts.

Low Production consists of an annual output if 1-100 units, Medium Production consists of 100-10,000 units, and High Production consists of 10,000 to millions of units. Production Quantity refers to annual number of output units while Production Variety refers to the different product designs produced within a factory; there is usually an inverse proportion relating these two. Soft Product Variety refers to small differences among products while Hard Product Variety occurs when they differ substantially.

Manufacturing plants consists of Processes, Systems, and Materials. Manufacturing Capability refers to the technical and physical limitations of a plant. Technological Processing Capability describes a plants available set of manufacturing processes; some can only perform machining operations while others only roll steel or build automobiles. Physical Product Limitations describe the size or weight of products and the difficulty that arises when you have larger,

immobile products. Production Capacity refers to maximum rate of production that a plant can achieve under standard operating conditions.

1.2 Materials in Manufacturing

Most engineering materials are classified into Metals, Ceramics, or Polymers; their physical, chemical, and mechanical properties are all quite different, and it is these differences that force them to be manufactured using different processes. Composites are nonhomogeneous mixtures of the other three material classes.

Commonly used metals in manufacturing are Alloys; mixtures of metallic and/or nonmetallic elements. Ferrous Metals are based on iron and include steel and cast iron. Pure Iron has little commercial use, but when alloyed, have more utilization than any other metal. Steel is an iron-carbon alloy containing 0.02 2.11% carbon while Cast Iron is the same alloy with more carbon 2-4%. Nonferrous Metals include other metallic elements and their alloys.

Ceramics are compounds of metals and nonmetals. Traditional ceramics include Clay, Silica (glass), and Alumina, while modern ceramics include Carbides and Nitrides. In terms of processing, ceramics are divided into ceramics and glasses as processing methods differ for each. Ceramics are powdered and fired while glasses are melted and cast.

Polymers are compounds containing repeating structural units called Mers and usually consist of carbon and other elements. Thermoplastic Polymers can be subjected to multiple heating and cooling cycles, Thermosetting Polymers cure into a rigid structure when cooled, and Elastomers are quite elastic and rubbery.

Composites consist of two or more physical Phases, where phases are homogenous aggregations of grains. Composites can be both natural and synthetic, and their properties greatly depend on components, shapes, and method of combination.

1.3 Manufacturing Processes

A Manufacturing Process is a designed procedure that results in physical or chemical changes to a starting work material with the intention of adding value. A Processing Operation transforms a work material from one state to a more advanced state. An Assembly Operation joins two or more components together.

There are three kinds of processing operations. Shaping Operations alter the geometry of the material. Property-Enhancing Operations improve the physical properties without affecting the shape. Surface Processing Operations are performed to clean and treat the exterior surface of the material. Assembly operations have permanent joining processes like Welding and Soldering while semi-permanent processes including Thread Fastening and the usage of screws and bolts.

Machine Tools are power-drive machines used to operate cutting tools that were once operated by hand. General Purpose Equipment is flexible and adaptive to a variety of jobs. Special Purpose Equipment is usually designed to create specific parts or products and feature high efficiencies with short cycle times. Tooling is the customization of equipment for each particular part or product that needs to be created. Every time a change is made to the design of a working material, tooling must be done.

1.4 Production Systems

Production Systems consist of people, equipment, and procedures. Production Facilities refer to physical equipment and its arrangement. Manufacturing Support Systems refer to the procedures used to manage production and solve technical/logistical issues encountered during day-to-day operation.

Plant Layout refers to equipment arrangement and can be organized into logical groups, called Manufacturing Systems. Low-quantity production shops have general purpose equipment with highly skilled laborers. They generally have a Fixed-Position Layout where the equipment and workers are brought to the working material itself. Batch Production is common to medium-quantity production facilities; it refers to equipment being changed between the creation of batches of products. The same equipment can be shared among multiple products. Quantity

Production and Flow Line Production are more common in high production facilities. The former consists of the mass production of single parts of single pieces of equipment that are specially tooled. The latter consists of an assembly line-style of production. When every product created is identical, it is referred to as a Single Model Production Line whereas the presence of soft variety is called a Mixed-Model Production Line.

Manufacturing Engineering is the department responsible for planning the manufacturing processes; they are also involved in designing and ordering the machine tools and equipment. Production Planning and Control is the department responsible for logistics and scheduling within a plant. Quality Control is responsible for ensuring that the quality of the final product is up to par with safety standards and functionality.

1.5 Trends in Manufacturing

Lean Production is described as doing more work with fewer resources. It is the method of using fewer workers and less equipment to produce more in less time, yet still achieve higher quality. The underlying objective of lean production is to minimize waste as much as possible. The Toyota Production System highlights seven forms of waste that can be targeted with lean production. Six Sigmas goal was to reduce variability in company processes to increase satisfaction. It can be directly defined as a quality-focused program that aims to improve the organizations operational performance.

The free flow of goods/services, capital, and technology among regions is called Globalization. It is closely related to Outsourcing, or the use of outside contractors to perform work that was normally done in-house. Offshore Outsourcing refers to outsourcing on the other side of the oceans while Near-Shore Outsourcing refers to continental outsourcing (Canada, Mexico, Central America, etc...).

Waste is a guaranteed byproduct of all production operations, whether it be by disposed scrap or excessive power usage. Environmentally Conscious Manufacturing refers to programs that seek to more efficiently use resources and minimize the negative effects on the environment. Design For Environment is used for techniques that attempt to consider the environmental impact before the product is even designed.

Microfabrication and Nanotechnology are both becoming extremely prevalent in todays societies as demand for precision based technology is growing.