 ATLANTA (August 23, 2000) -- In today's business world, the importance of manufacturing and other traditional industries is often overshadowed by high tech stories about electronic commerce or the initial public offering of a dotcom. However, manufacturing is the United States' fourth largest industry, employing more than 18 million people.
Keeping pace with the times, the manufacturing industry has changed dramatically and now incorporates sophisticated technology to help streamline processes and test ideas. An example of this technology can be found at the Keck Virtual Factory Lab at Georgia Tech.
A virtual factory is a computational model of a real factory. It supports the analysis and design of the logistics of material movement and process flow, and the control and communication activities associated with manufacturing. Ideas or proposed changes can be modeled, analyzed and reconfigured on the computer before they are built, ensuring efficiency, saving money and human capital, and avoiding errors.
In a laboratory study, Tech students developed a virtual factory model of a machine that assembles printed circuit boards for electronic devices. Utilizing board design data, such as the electronic components that must be placed on the board by machine, the student programmed and configured the machine model in order to minimize the amount of time it takes to produce a board. With their models in place, they ran experiments to improve cycle time. These particular models provide detailed computer-assisted simulations and three-dimensional visualization and animation of machine operation, so students can see and understand complex behaviors, as well as slow down or speed up model execution. This model has been used for lab assignments in a graduate-level course within the industrial engineering curriculum.
The W.M. Keck Foundation of Los Angeles, CA provided approximately $1.5 million to support the team of faculty from Tech's School of Industrial and Systems Engineering working on the virtual factory project. Under the leadership of Professor Leon F. McGinnis, the team is developing the scientific basis and engineering tools for a new manufacturing discipline called industrial logistics.
"Industrial logistics addresses issues ranging from the basic physical arrangement of factory space, to the selection of particular manufacturing processes, to the design of integrated communication and control systems necessary for lights out operation," according to McGinnis, the Eugene C. Gwaltney Jr. Chair in Manufacturing Systems.
Other traditional industries, such as the aerospace field, also are using more technology to improve processes. At Georgia Tech, aerospace engineering professors use Dassault, the software suite that has become one of the standards of the aerospace industry.
The software enables the engineer to work in a 3D virtual environment to construct both simple and complex designs that can be viewed using a digital mockup environment. In this virtual reality the user can inspect the aircraft design for detail and conflicts. Specific tools allow a wide range of analyses to be conducted including time studies, human accessibility/ergonomics/safety, process optimization and verification.
"Georgia Tech students are currently exposed to the Virtual Design Environment in their freshman year, allowing for a fully seasoned professional to graduate and enter industry. Tech is definitely an international leader in this respect as evidenced by our feedback of methodologies to the software producers," said Peter B. Hart, College of Engineering.
Appearing in Georgia Tech's News & Information website online. |
