Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Rapid changeover between products is paramount if genuine manufacturing flexibility and efficiency are to be achieved. Limited guidance is currently available for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) trying to create flexible and responsive manufacturing hardware suited to their customers' needs. This paper presents a formal design for changeover (DFC) methodology. This is a generic methodology aiming to assist designers in the design of flexible and responsive manufacturing equipment. The proposed methodology guides the equipment designer through a step-by-step process from analysing changeover capabilities through to the identification of improvement opportunities. The methodology builds upon basic concepts and methods described in Part 1 of this paper. The identification of improvement ideas is supported by the change driver flow-down introduced in this part. A case study is presented to illustrate the use of the methodology.

Keywords

design for changeover (DFC)design methodology manufacturing flexibility manufacturing responsiveness

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Reik

M. P.

McIntosh

R. I.

Owen

G. W.

Culley

S. J.

Milehani

A. R.

A formal design for changeover (DFC) methodology. Part 2: Methodology and case study. Proc. IMechE, Part B: J. Engineering Manufacture, 2006, 220(B8), 1237–1247.

Mileham

A. R.

Culley

S. J.

Owen

G. W.

McIntosh

R. I.

Rapid changeover — a prerequisite for responsive manufacture. Int. J. Ops Prod. Management, 1999, 19(8), 785–796.

Van Goubergen

Van Landeghem

Rules for integrating fast changeover capabilities into new equipment design. In Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Flexible manufacturing, Elsevier Science Ltd, Dublin, 2002, pp. 205–214.

Boothroyd

Dewhurst

Knight

Product design for manufacture and assembly, 1994 (Marcel Dekker, New York).

Martin

M. V.

Ishii

Design for Variety: Developing standardised and modularized product platform architectures. Res. Engng Des., 2002, 13(4), 213–235.

Whitney

D. E.

Mechanical assemblies — their design, manufacture, and role in product development, 2004 (Oxford University Press, New York).

Neuhausen

Methodik zur Gestaltung modularer Produktionssysteme fur Unternehmen der Serienpro-duktion. PhD Thesis, Laboratorium fur Werkzeugmaschinen und Betriebslehre (WZL), RWTH Aachen, 2001.

Schuh

Harre

Gottschalk

Kampker

Design for changeability (DEC) — Das richtige Maß an Wandlungsfähigkeit finden. wt

Werkstattstechnik, 2004, 94(04), 100–106.

Bado

A. C.

Development and use of financial evaluation in a design for changeover (DFC) methodology. MSc Thesis, Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Bath, 2005.

10.

McIntosh

R. I.

Culley

S. J.

Mileham

A. R.

Owen

G. W.

Improving changeover performance, 2001, (Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK).

11.

McIntosh

R. I.

‘Design for competitive advantage’ — final presentation of a University of Bath project on the integrated product and process design of a supermarket trolley, Bath, 2003.

12.

Reik

M. P.

McIntosh

R. I.

Owen

G. W.

Mileham

A. R.

Culley

S. J.

2005, Design for changeover: Enabling the design of highly flexible, highly responsive manufacturing processes. In Proceedings of International Conference on Mass customisation 2005, Klagenfurt, Austria, pp. 373–384.