The integration of conceptual process planning and early design stages is a vital activity in the modern industrial environment. Since major manufacturing time is committed in product specification and design, it is critical to be able to assess manufacturing as early as possible in the design process. In this research, an algorithm is developed to build an (Integration of Product Design and Pr...

(MT) technology at Ford Motor Company since the late 1990s. Our initial goal was to utilize MT to translate vehicle build instructions from English to the native languages in the countries and regions where our assembly plants are located. The source text utilized a controlled language that we developed, called Standard Language, and we initially thought that applying MT technology would be a s...

Due to dynamic evolution, the ability of a manufacturing technology to produce a special product is changing. Therefore, it is essential to monitor the established techniques and processes to detect whether a company’s production will fit future circumstances. Concerning the manufacturing technology planning process, companies must decide when to change to a new technology for maintaining and i...

The paper describes the results of some analysis of a Regional Competitiveness Project Benchmarking database covering both Manufacturing and Service sectors in the North East of England. The survey was conducted by a number of partner organisations using a variant of a well-established benchmarking tool. The study involved day-long visits to companies and the assisted completion of a specially ...

The current day manufacturing environment is characterized by numerous challenges and changes. A typical manufacturing company faces constantly changing product volumes and mix. It is commonly recognized that traditional manufacturing systems do not fit to present market competition and a shift is needed. A great amount of research efforts has been put on looking for new manufacturing systems. ...

In this study, an outsourcer evaluation and management system is developed for a manufacturing company by use of Fuzzy goal programming (FGP). A first phase of the methodology evaluation criteria for outsources and the objectives of the company are determined. Considering the fuzziness in the decision data, linguistic variables that can be expressed in generalized fuzzy number are used. The pro...

This paper discusses the informational requirements of layered manufacturing (LM). The most common industrial use of LM today is for rapid prototyping, but we take a wider view of it as a flexible fabrication technology. Its use in building functional metallic parts under computer control has already been demonstrated in the research context. Commercial LM machines for building production parts...