In my previous post "Changes in Making things !" i talked about the evolution of manufacturing and why the evolution happened. In this post i thought of writing about the current trends in manufacturing and also the future... The current trend: Manufacturing systems concentrate on least resources and best output. “Lean manufacturing” is a leading manufacturing paradigm being applied in many sectors of the world, where improving product quality, reducing production costs, and being “first to market” and quick to respond to customer needs are critical to competitiveness and success.
Other
than Lean, there are a lot of other systems ranging from flexible
manufacturing, outsourcing, OEM – Branding relations (like Nike). The
difficulties that companies face in today’s marketplace are fierce: shifting
customer demand, increasing variation in products and demands for perfect
quality. Lean principles and methods focus on creating a continual improvement
culture that engages employees in reducing the intensity of time, materials,
and capital necessary for meeting a customer’s needs. While lean production’s
fundamental focus is on the systematic elimination of non-value added activity
and waste from the production process, the implementation of lean principles
and methods also results in improved customer satisfaction and probability of
success in businesses.
The improvements are
patterned by
1. Continual improvement culture focused
on identifying and eliminating waste
2. Design
for manufacturing
3.
Communication
advancements
4.
IT /
Computation capability advancements
5.
Value
addition
6.
Employee
involvement in continual improvement and problem-solving
7. Operations-based focus of
activity and involvement
8. Supply chain investment
Next page in Manufacturing
Currently
the industries are facing crisis of Manpower
shortage, Raw
material shortage – costly raw materials, Non
stabilized value for crude oil, Day
by day increase in cost of transportation and mainly Environmental
concerns
These
individually or collectively at different levels of impact will trigger the
next stage of evolution of the system. Localized Manufacturing: Localized
manufacturing of all the accessories that needs to be assembled to make the
desired good is manufactured at the source of demand. This is can be triggered
by fuel cost, supply chain inability and advantage of inland production
technologies and control over the processing. Batch size of 1:
The kind of manufacturing where a pull system is employed and the economics of
scales are achievable by batch sizes of 1. This can be achieved by advancement
of lean and it becomes a standard of operation across the vendors till the
source of the raw material. 3D Printing:
The production of goods, similar to the prototyping the models for research is
implemented. The advancement of agile manufacturing can be achieved by 3D
printing. There may be issues of strength and durability, but not all parts can
be 3D printed. Most of the complicated structures and seamless equipments are a
major part of the whole manufacturing assemblies. Raw Material from Recycling: The
availability of scrap and used material of all categories are found on all the
places of the planet. Leaving that and searching for new sources of ore to make
billets and start manufacturing processes impacts on large volume of carbon
footprint. Production of scale can be achieved in production of the powdered
raw material for 3D printing. 3D Printing – Binder:
Binders which are used now days are for ABB and other synthetic material. The
binding strengths should evolve.
Combining
all the above said transformation will lead to
- Less carbon foot print / production volume
- Raw material produced from scrap
- Power needed for 3D printing technology will be less than the current systems
The
flowchart explains the process involving all the technologies talked about
I would like an open discussion. I am just expecting this change in near future. We will wait and see how the manufacturing world changes to the current issues faced.
I wrote this article in 2010, the current trends and this posting from wired.co.uk tempted me to put up my thoughts (though old ..) have a look you might be convinced.
