Impact of manufacturing engineering efficiency to the industry advancement/Gamybos inzinerijos efektyvumo itaka pramones pletrai.
Bargelis, A. ; Mankute, R.
1. Introduction
The manufacturing environment during later several decades has
changed very much; it became modern and competitive for mastering new
design and manufacturing methods in many industrial fields. The need of
new products development and processes manufacturing engineering at the
same time has increased. The new manufacturing strategy when developers,
manufacturers, suppliers and customers are located in various companies
and countries reduced new product lead time and delivery to customer.
Manufacturing engineering objective is to develop process for
production of a new product choosing all necessary operations, machine
tools, tooling and other aspects of planning and control of a
manufacturing. It takes place between product design and the creation of
the overall manufacturing process, as a planning and developing
activity. Manufacturing engineering refers very broadly to all the
activities required to create and produce products in the strong limit
of budget, time and high innovation requirements and quality parameters.
In other words, it is placed in the intermediate position between
product design and production departments and includes a factory
operation. Designers, unfortunately, give too little consideration to
important product life cycle issues such as product parts'
fabrication, assembly, test, repair, and modification. This is true even
though designers are increasingly aware to design product parts so that
they can be fabricated economically and still meet high performance
requirements [1].
First steps solving manufacturing engineering problem were
development of computer aided process planning (CAPP) systems aiming
systematization of the work variety and creation of the product
manufacturing process route [2]. The enterprise resources planning (ERP)
systems in parallel have been developed also [3]. Later all these
developments have been introduced into computer integrated manufacturing
(CIM) systems [4]. The main problem of mentioned systems development is
an imperfect use of overlapping cross-disciplinary work and neglecting
of borderland research questions and implementation. If no real
implementation in industry is applied, then no feedback of appropriate
good practice and case studies are examined and disseminated, and best
results and developments are achieved. Features of the manufacturing
engineering, in particular, at the early stage of new product and
process development still are analyzed insufficiently. The strongest
effect of the manufacturing process, resources and costs has decisions
and solutions made on the early stage of product and process
development. On the other hand, for low production volume and high
products variety, the lack of effective algorithms and mathematical
models, other techniques and software leads to a block of new
advancements in manufacturing engineering. The seminal collaboration
among industrial organizations and technical universities and colleges
guarantees finding of new development ideas in a manufacturing
engineering field and getting the higher skill bachelors and masters.
This is obviously in Lithuania and the whole European Union (EU),
because many previous advanced manufacturing positions in EU step by
step are lost. The new investments for theoretical and experimental
works achieving advancement in manufacturing engineering and innovative
products development are permanently made in the framework of EU
research programs. This research partially is made applying such
research fund.
The aim of this research is to develop and generalize theoretical
methods of creative advancement the manufacturing engineering. It is
based on wide collaboration among developers of products and processes,
manufacturers, customers and people from universities. The work
integration of various jobs in mental and experimental activity
developing of new products, and approach of concurrent engineering and
close cooperation among academia and industry are leading moments of
this research. Research novelty of this paper is concentrated on the
origination of the manufacturing people collaborative work methodology
in different activity areas.
2. Manufacturing engineering advancement in modern manufacturing
environment
Manufacturing engineering includes product design and manufacturing
system design as well as operation of the factory during new product
lead time to customer delivery. The well known methods of concurrent
engineering and design for excellent are widely applied seeking
overlapping of product and process design procedures. The increase of
new products variety and performance, and decrease the production
volume, product lead time and manufacturing cost pursues the developers
to search new efficient methods and techniques for manufacturing
engineering. Very efficient approach is integrated creation of new
product and process applying modeling at the early product development
stage and specialized software for structures and cost optimization [5,
6]. Many of these developments have been implemented in industry and
universities study modules. The crisis, recession and high competition,
unfortunately, forces to search the new ways to increase advancement of
manufacturing engineering, because it can help seeking higher labor
productivity, and success in marketplaces.
The long manufacturing engineering research experience of paper
authors' and last research publications of other explorers [7, 8]
show that there are not enough new investments in this area. It is
necessary to make many changes in manufacturing engineering routine, in
particular, activating collaborative approach of this procedure, which
is based on the learning through experience in work, education, research
and new business situations created and checked by estimation of
available alternatives. These new product and process alternatives are
presumption of opportunities for manufacturing engineering and
production innovation. Benchmarking methodology and appropriate
consideration of laser and other high technologies impact on
manufacturing efficiency in two EU countries sheet metalworking industry
have been made [9]. The knowledge-based cross-disciplinary learning
program is proposed for developers and employees to increase the
competitive capabilities and collaboration [10]. It consists of virtual
and rapid prototyping, computer integrated manufacturing and is
illustrated by appropriate case studies and experimental examples.
The EU research project IRMA [11] displayed many problems in
manufacturing engineering. Such situation demands to activate this
procedure in both corporative and educational ways. Project IRMA
research is based on the analysis of current situation of manufacturing
engineering area in the all 27 EU countries by created appropriate
questionnaire. It was three groups of analyzed problems: 1) co-operation
level between universities and enterprises, 2) study programs related to
the manufacturing engineering in universities, and 3) skills and
competences management in universities and enterprises related to the
manufacturing engineering. One university of technology and one
technological faculty of other university, and twelve enterprises from
Lithuania have been involved in the mentioned analysis. The results
after poll have been systematized and proposals for improvement the
collaboration among the enterprises and educational organizations
seeking better advancement of manufacturing engineering have been made.
The mentioned collaboration was oriented on the better partnership of
universities and enterprises in sharing jobs among university lecturers
and companies' engineers and managers, students practice and work
after graduation. Special attitude was divided to industry input
improving facilities, software and hardware, other technique in
universities laboratories for manufacturing engineering studies. Very
important are real industrial topics of Master Science (MSc) thesis and
implementation of PhD students' research results. This approach has
been developed on the analysis performed by comparing theoretical and
practical issues of concurrent development products and processes.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. Estimation of manufacturing engineering level in Lithuanian
industry
Estimation of manufacturing engineering level in Lithuanian
industry by developed questionnaire of IRMA project promoter has been
performed. Twelve private small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and one
large company participated in the analysis. Analysis results showed that
the majority (about 78%) considered enterprises have from 5 to 15 years
of activity while rest enterprises have activity from 20 to 50 and more
than 50 years. The number of employees fluctuated in the limits from 11
to 50 in 25% of enterprises, from 51 to 100 on 17%, from 101 to 500 on
42% and from 501 to 1000 on 17% of enterprises. Percentage of employees
with academic backgrounds (university graduates) from 11 to 50 has been
on 58% of enterprises while in the rest enterprises (42%) graduated
people are less than 10%. In general, graduated specialists number in
enterprises is sufficient, but the most part of graduates has been
educated 10-20 years ago. This is a reason that enterprises have applied
computers and appropriate software not sufficiently in manufacturing
engineering area. On the other hand there is no necessary for intensive
software application because small number of new products and
engineering tasks.
The application of innovative manufacturing engineering methods
using specialised software is presented in Table 1. Despite of 100%
usage of modern software (SW) technologies, the other results are not
very optimistic: even 42% of enterprises are not optimizing product
design according to price and manufacturing cost. Only in 25% of
enterprises CAPP systems usage is intensive, but 33%--rare and even 42%
are not using CAPP system at all, maybe Lithuanian enterprises do not
believe in their activity effectiveness applying CAPP systems.
Usage of ERP, MRP (Material Resources Planning) systems, logistics,
innovation of manufacturing tools is very low too. Normally these
systems use only 42% of Lithuanian enterprises and 17% use rarely or do
not used implicitly.
3.2. Cooperation level between industrial and educational sectors
The two Lithuanian universities (one technological) have
participated in analysis. The general information of considered
universities is presented in Table 2. For improvement of manufacturing
engineering education in University of Technology A the innovative
teaching methods and modern software have been implemented in the study
process, as distance education environments (Moodle, WebCT, CDK, and so
on), web-based interdiscipline learning platform "IIDSP" [10],
Integrated Computer Aided Manufacturing Engineering system
"SAT" [2], intelligent models for integrated product and
process development, analysis and creation models of manufacturing
process and cost forecasting at the early stage of a new product, or new
business development stage [3, 5].
The main manufacturing engineering advancement features as
cooperation level between academia and industry, the match of
universities study programs, the skills of university personnel and
possibility to improve study programs and facilities have been analyzed
and considered in this research. It was interesting to know enterprises
opinion related with study programs further perfection seeking of
manufacturing advancement. The technical staff as heads or leading
specialists of product and process development departments in
enterprises and computer-aided manufacturing engineering professors and
lecturers in universities has been involved in this analysis. The level
of cooperation features between universities and enterprises is
illustrated in Fig. 1.
No intensive cooperation with universities; scale of cooperation
with universities at the different levels is as follows:
* at the regional level: 50% of enterprises--"normal",
and 42%--"rare";
* at the national level: only 25% of
enterprises--"normal", and 75%--"rare" or "no
cooperation";
* at the international level: only 8% of
enterprises--"normal", and even 75%--"no
cooperation".
The various cooperation activities and intensity among enterprises
and universities have been applied (Table 3). The principal actions are
cross participation in students' education and employees training,
and creation of Master Science (MSc) students' thesis and PhD
students' dissertations topics related to the manufacturing
engineering problems. No intensive, unfortunately, cooperation and
mostly "no cooperation" have been stated; usually rare
enterprises' personnel participate in the trainings organised by
universities. The rest features of cooperation activity are expressed as
follows:
* enterprise's personnel participating in the trainings
organised by universities: mostly "rare" (67% of enterprises);
* enterprise provides equipment or access to equipment for use, for
a defined set of studies: mostly "no cooperation" (67% of
enterprises);
* student / PhD mobility, traineeships within enterprise
structures: mostly "rare" and "no cooperation" (33
and 33% of enterprises);
* exchange of personnel between enterprise and
universities--participation in trainings / researches: only 33% of
enterprises--"rare", and even 58% "no cooperation";
* cooperation with intermediaries / companies exits: mostly
"rare" and "no cooperation" (42 and 25% of
enterprises).
The research analysis results of the universities study programmes
quality related to the manufacturing engineering are presented in Table
4. The majority of en- terprises agree with quality of current programs
or agree to some extent. Fig. 2 shows the common view of universities
current study programs.
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
The results of a current cooperation state among universities and
enterprises are given in Table 5. No responses that completely disagree
with current cooperation status and minority that disagree. The majority
of research analysis participants agrees with existing situation or
agrees to some extent.
Table 6 illustrates the human resources development level of the
cooperation among universities and enterprises. The participants in
general agree (58-50%) that humans may have high skill and should be
qualified in special training programs in order to be able to carry out
their multiple roles efficiently. Fig. 3 shows a total participants view
of humans' development.
Table 7 shows the industrialists' responses of the necessity
to improve the study programs related to manufacturing engineering
education in universities. In general, the majority of participants
agree that universities should modernise and update their study
programmes according to the rapid evolution of innovative technologies
and new peculiarities in manufacturing environment. Moreover,
universities should cooperate with enterprises in the graduates'
skills and training needs analysis, curriculum design and job placements
for gradual students. Fig. 4 and Fig. 5 demonstrate overall view of
participants' opinion in accordance with human resources seeking
efficient cooperation among industry and universities.
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 4 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 5 OMITTED]
4. Conclusions
The research of this paper raised and considered actual cooperation
efficiency problems among academia and industry in modern and new
manufacturing environment. The cooperation is divided to improve
manufacturing engineering education in universities and implementation
in industry. It is stated many differences in understanding benefit of
successful cooperation for both sides improving manufacturing
engineering. On the other hand there are some common points of view how
to improve the efficiency of such cooperation. The research is based on
the responses of questionnaire; therefore, some subjectivity is
available. Briefly it is concluded.
1. Low current cooperation level among universities and enterprises
on national and international standard (25%) and no any cooperation
(75%).
2. Rare enterprises' personnel trainings organized by
universities and equipments providing to universities (67% of
enterprises).
3. Small number of enterprises people participate in universities
students education process (58% of enterprises not cooperate and 33%
rare).
4. Only 17% of enterprises agree that universities prepare
graduates for "enterprise world".
5. 67% of enterprises agree to involve in university curricula
study modules for supporting the graduates to start-up business or
enhancement of competitiveness of existing enterprises.
6. Universities should modernize and update their study modules in
accordance of rapid manufacturing evolution (50% enterprises fully agree
and 50% agree).
Acknowledgement
This research was partially supported by EC project grant agreement
No 2007--1990 / 001 "Inter countries research for manufacturing
advancement (IRMA)" in period from 01.01.2008 to 31.12.2009.
Received May 05, 2010
Accepted July 02, 2010
References
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A. Bargelis *, R. Mankute **
* Kaunas University of Technology, Kestucio 27, 4312 Kaunas,
Lithuania, E-mail: algirdas.bargelis@ktu.lt
** Kaunas University of Technology, Kestucio 27, 4312 Kaunas,
Lithuania, E-mail: rasa.mankute@ktu.lt
Table 1
Innovative manufacturing engineering methods used at enterprises
Innovative method Usage, %
Intensive Normal Rare No used
Modern software (SW) 25 42 33 0
technologies
Optimization of product design 25 33 0 42
focused on price and
manufacturing costs (CAD etc.)
Modern CAPP systems and their 25 0 33 42
implementation
Approaches during the 0 58 33 8
production phases
ERP, MRP systems, logistics, 25 42 17 17
innovation of manufacturing
tools
Environmental impacts of 25 33 25 17
cutting edge manufacturing
technologies
Table 2
General information of considered universities
General University of University B
information Technology (technologi-
A cal faculty)
Years of activity More than 70 50
Number of students 15000-20000 10000-15000
Percentage of stu- 6-10 6-10
dents doing their
studies in the manu-
facturing engineering
sector
Total number of 1001-2000 1001-2000
teaching staff
Table 3
Activities covered by the cooperation between enterprises and
universities
Opinion, %
Activities Intensive Normal Rare No cooperation
Enterprise's personnel 0 17 67 17
participating in the
trainings organised by
Universities
Enterprise provides 0 0 33 67
equipment or access to
equipment for use, for a
defined set of studies
Student /PhD mobility, 0 33 33 33
traineeships within
enterprise structures
Exchange of personnel 0 8 33 58
between Enterprise and
Universities /participation
in trainings /researches
Cooperation with 8 25 42 25
Intermediaries /Companies
exits
Table 4
Universities study programmes quality related to the manufacturing
engineering
Opinion, %
Universities study programmes Fully Agree Agree to Disagree
quality agree some
extent
A: Study experience of 0 17 75 8
graduates at university help
prepare the graduates for
the "enterprise world"
B: Universities graduates are 17 33 50 0
well prepared from the
theoretical point of view but
they miss the practical
skills
C: Lifelong learning 42 42 16 0
activities are important at
every level of studies and
workplaces
Opinion, %
Universities study programmes Completely
quality disagree
A: Study experience of 0
graduates at university help
prepare the graduates for
the "enterprise world"
B: Universities graduates are 0
well prepared from the
theoretical point of view but
they miss the practical
skills
C: Lifelong learning 0
activities are important at
every level of studies and
workplaces
Table 5
Organization features of cooperation among universities and enterprises
Opinion, %
Organization of cooperation Fully Agree Agree
agree to some
extent
A: The current universities 8 25 58
structure should be changed in order
to be designed more for technology
transfer -enterprise-universities
cooperation
B: Establishment of a department / 8 33 25
office as an interface between the
institute and business groups should
be created by universities.
C: Innovative /advanced study 8 58 33
programmes at universities that
allow the students to develop their
enterprise skills.
D: Involvement of universities in 8 67 25
the programmes for supporting the
start-up business or enhancement of
competitiveness of existing
enterprises.
E: Work experience for undergraduates 17 50 33
F: Cooperation among universities at 17 33 33
national -international level,
exchange of best practise,
experiences and knowledge within the
university-enterprise cooperation
G: Student and personnel mobility - 8 33 50
at regional, national and
international level
H: Research projects at regional, 8 50 33
national and international level in
cooperation with enterprises and
intermediaries
I: Facilitate access of enterprises 25 42 25
to the research results
J: Market opportunities -analysis of 25 58 17
needs and requirements of the local
industry -in terms of education and
training
Opinion, %
Organization of cooperation Disagree Completely
disagree
A: The current universities 8 0
structure should be changed in order
to be designed more for technology
transfer -enterprise-universities
cooperation
B: Establishment of a department / 33 0
office as an interface between the
institute and business groups should
be created by universities.
C: Innovative /advanced study 0 0
programmes at universities that
allow the students to develop their
enterprise skills.
D: Involvement of universities in 0 0
the programmes for supporting the
start-up business or enhancement of
competitiveness of existing
enterprises.
E: Work experience for undergraduates 0 0
F: Cooperation among universities at 17 0
national -international level,
exchange of best practise,
experiences and knowledge within the
university-enterprise cooperation
G: Student and personnel mobility - 8 0
at regional, national and
international level
H: Research projects at regional, 8 0
national and international level in
cooperation with enterprises and
intermediaries
I: Facilitate access of enterprises 8 0
to the research results
J: Market opportunities -analysis of 0 0
needs and requirements of the local
industry -in terms of education and
training
Table 6
Cooperation among universities and enterprises--human resources
development level
Human resources development
level Opinion, %
Fully Agree Agree
agree to some
extent
A: Personnel who deal with the 42 58 0
technology transfer should be
qualified in special training
programmes -in order to be
able to carry out their
multiple roles efficiently.
B: Universities should appoint 17 50 25
managers -researchers who have
experiences in both areas--
university and industry.
C: The current human resources 0 33 67
are sufficient.
Human resources development
level
Disagree Completely
disagree
A: Personnel who deal with the 0 0
technology transfer should be
qualified in special training
programmes -in order to be
able to carry out their
multiple roles efficiently.
B: Universities should appoint 8 0
managers -researchers who have
experiences in both areas--
university and industry.
C: The current human resources 0 0
are sufficient.
Table 7
The improvement of study programs at the universities
Improvement of study programs Fully
agree
A: Universities should 50
modernise and update their
study programmes according the
rapid evolution
B: The students should be 8
involved in "young enterprise
activities"
C: Lifelong learning 42
initiatives should be a part
of every university studies
Universities should cooperate D1: Skills 17
with enterprises in the requirements
following areas
D2: Training needs 17
analysis analysis
D3: Curriculum 25
design
D4: Job placements 25
for gradual students
E: Developing projects of 25
education and trainings
together with enterprises
Opinion, %
Improvement of study programs Agree
A: Universities should 50
modernise and update their
study programmes according the
rapid evolution
B: The students should be 58
involved in "young enterprise
activities"
C: Lifelong learning 42
initiatives should be a part
of every university studies
Universities should cooperate D1: Skills 67
with enterprises in the requirements
following areas
D2: Training needs 33
analysis analysis
D3: Curriculum 33
design
D4: Job placements 33
for gradual students
E: Developing projects of 50
education and trainings
together with enterprises
Improvement of study programs Agree
to some
extent
A: Universities should 0
modernise and update their
study programmes according the
rapid evolution
B: The students should be 33
involved in "young enterprise
activities"
C: Lifelong learning 17
initiatives should be a part
of every university studies
Universities should cooperate D1: Skills 17
with enterprises in the requirements
following areas
D2: Training needs 50
analysis analysis
D3: Curriculum 42
design
D4: Job placements 33
for gradual students
E: Developing projects of 25
education and trainings
together with enterprises
Improvement of study programs Disagree
A: Universities should 0
modernise and update their
study programmes according the
rapid evolution
B: The students should be 0
involved in "young enterprise
activities"
C: Lifelong learning 0
initiatives should be a part
of every university studies
Universities should cooperate D1: Skills 0
with enterprises in the requirements
following areas
D2: Training needs 0
analysis analysis
D3: Curriculum 0
design
D4: Job placements 8
for gradual students
E: Developing projects of 0
education and trainings
together with enterprises
Improvement of study programs Completely
disagree
A: Universities should 0
modernise and update their
study programmes according the
rapid evolution
B: The students should be 0
involved in "young enterprise
activities"
C: Lifelong learning 0
initiatives should be a part
of every university studies
Universities should cooperate D1: Skills 0
with enterprises in the requirements
following areas
D2: Training needs 0
analysis analysis
D3: Curriculum 0
design
D4: Job placements 0
for gradual students
E: Developing projects of 0
education and trainings
together with enterprises
