Methodology for Generation of Cross-Process Modells (IKTINO II)

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Bergs
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2023
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 535498282

Manufacturing companies aim for the most economical production possible in order to achieve competitive advantages. In doing so, it is necessary to reliably generate the component function or the required characteristics of the manufactured component. The production of components usually consists of combined manufacturing processes, which are often considered and planned separately from each other and are only merged at higher planning levels. Intermediate states between the processes are usually defined on the basis of experience in upstream planning phases. The separate consideration of the processes and the experience-based definition of intermediate states result in the fact that technological and economic dependencies between processes are insufficiently considered. At the same time, the cross-process consideration of manufacturing process sequences offers high technological, economical and ecological optimization potential for manufacturing, since this allows the individual processes to be coordinated with each other in a target-oriented manner. The results of the first funding period (2+2 project) IKTINO (I) underline the potential of cross-process consideration. The objective of the planned project is to investigate the lack of basic knowledge on the integrated, cross-process design of economically optimized manufacturing process sequences, taking into account tolerances and process scatter, in order to close existing research gaps. Building on the methodology developed in the first funding period, research is being conducted into how process scatter can be taken into account in the cross-process models, differentiating between process scatter and model uncertainties. It is investigated how to integrate tolerances into the evaluation of uncertainties along manufacturing process sequences and into the evaluation of economical efficiency. The optimization procedure will be further developed, for which the interrelationships between the cross-process models (incl. tolerances and scatter), the extended determination of uncertainties, the evaluation of economic efficiency and an eco-nomically optimized process parameter combination are to be investigated. In addition, a systematic procedure will be developed to support practitioners in the reduction of residual uncertainties with regard to the determined process parameter combination. It is expected that the optimization procedure and the systematic procedure for the reduction of residual uncertainties will be iterative. All models and methods to be developed will be validated on a case study, whereby potentially, depending on the validation result, the individual developments will be further developed empirically-inductively.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants