Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
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High sequence keeping rates through decentralised scheduling in automotive industries

1997 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Beck, S.

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Pull-oriented synchronization of logistics and production flow in automobile industries

1996 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Bahns, O. , Beck, S. , Krause, O.

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Manufacturing philosophy for the new European factory

1993 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Edeler, H.

In the last few years we had a sophisticated discussion about the factory of the future. This vision is mainly influenced by new market demands and organizational changes. The development has changed from CIM to Lean Production. After automatization of processes with computers new principles of teamwork, human communication, efficient use of ressources and continuous process improvement are under discussion. Especially the economic results of japanese automotive industry are spectacular: half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing space, half the investment, half the engineering hours and half the time to develop new products. But, are these effects direct results of an unique management philosophy? Or is Lean Production only a actual concept that may change in some years? Some generally successful used methods will be described in this paper.

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A flexible architecture for distributed shop floor control systems

1992 , Mertins, K. , Krause, H. , Steinberger, V. , Albrecht, R. , Müller, W.

In a flexible manufacturing environment the use of distributed, networked computers is growing. For control software it is necessary to keep pace with this development. Powerful mechanisms for netwide interprocess communication are needed as well as special a dedicated manufacturing database. This article shows the requirements such an environment poses to software production and offers a software architecture that includes a variety of features to perform easily new and changing tasks in the area of shop floor control.

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Application of customer/supplier relations on decentralized short term production planning and control in automotive industries

1996 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Bahns, O. , Beck, S. , LaPierre, B.

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Constraint production management using Fuzzy Control

1995 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Duttenhofer, F.

The functions of short-time planning and control of orders on the factory's shop floor can be supported by Production Management Systems. A scheduling system capable of reflecting the planning staff's experience has been implemented. Due to the complexity of the scheduling problem and the typical lack of precision in shop expert's planning strategy descriptions a system was designed based on Fuzzy Logic. The article presents concepts, theory and implementation of a Fuzzy Logic scheduling system for an aluminium foundry and mill.

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Knowledge based system for continuous steel casting in interaction with conventional programs

1993 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Bucksch, G.

The basic requirement for scheduling the continuous casting in a steel making factory is to optimize the strain of the converters. The "automatic continuous casting program" supplies insufficient advises, because this is not capable of handling time restrictions. It has to be optimized by two encapsulating knowledge based modules to come up with a complete workable solution. A plan developed for the continuous casting is guided by process data, scenarios describing the surrounding situation, and the depending plan for the converters. This planning process has to include resources, observing terms, and trouble handling. The possibility of including the experience of the masters of continuous casting and converters is important for improving the work of the Al modules. The evaluation of the given situation is done in the first knowledge based module according to the process data and the describing scenarios. This first knowledge based module supplies the input data for the "automatic con tinuous casting program". The results of the "automatic continuous casting program" is treated as a proposal schedule for the second knowledge based module. This module contains control knowledge and correction knowledge for optimizing the result with the former planning module in a cyclical heuristically process until certain quality criteria for schedule are met. The overall result of the joint work of the "automatic continuous casting program" extended by the two knowledge based modules is a manufacturable plan that incorporates the time restrictions. The knowledge based modules are realised with the KBMS expert system shell and tightly coupled using database technology.

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Test and evaluation of factory control concepts by integrated simulation

1996 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Rabe, M. , Rieger, P.

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Set-up scheduling by fuzzy logic

1994 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Wegener, U. , Duttenhofer, F.

Production Management Systems support the short-time planning and control of orders on the shop floor level in the factory. In order to support the planning staff a scheduling system was implemented reflecting most of the staff's experience. Because of the complexity of the scheduling problem and the unprecise descriptions of the planning strategy of the experts a system based on Fuzzy Logic scheduling system for an aluminium mill.

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Business-process oriented order control

1992 , Mertins, K. , Albrecht, R. , Steinberger, V.