EG6019 Advanced Manufacturing Technology Brief, University of East London

Assignment Brief

Part A: Manufacturing Simulation Using WITNESS Software  

THE BRIEF/INSTRUCTIONS  

• This is an open-ended assignment. Open-ended tasks have more than one right answer, solution or outcome and can be completed in more than one way.  
• The aim of the assignment is to use WITNESS Simulation Software to simulate and optimise the  manufacturing process of an engineering product or component of your choice. A written technical report  will show the creation of the simulation taken by you prior to starting the simulation. The report will  contain a proliferation of illustrations/screenshots of elements of your simulation.  
• The assignment should produce enough evidence for the fulfilment of the following module learning  outcomes: Describe and illustrate the scope, context, and significance of manufacturing. Explain, justify,  and apply specific manufacturing techniques. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the factors  internal to the manufacturing systems that affect behaviour and robustness.  
• Your initial priority should be to create a simple simulation that gives credible results; to gain higher grades look to add elements to the simulation to expand, further refine the model and interpret the results to  optimise the processes. Explain and justify your assumptions and decisions and consider how the  simulation could be refined once a basic simulation is working.  

Tasks 

• Read the basic WITNESS Training Reference Manual which is has been designed for people who are  new to WITNESS. No prior knowledge of simulation is necessary. Familiarity with computing is not  necessary but will be advantageous. 
  
• Read “Building Your First WITNESS Model” in page 28 of the training manual. This a tutorial showing  step by step procedure of how to build the model using WITNESS. 
  
• Using Lanner Witness software create a simulation model to show the flow of work through the  different manufacturing activities shown in the block diagram. 
  
• Identify bottlenecks in the assembly phase so that the process could be streamlined and run more  efficiently. Propose ways to eliminate or minimise the bottleneck. Include buffer and conveyor belts  wherever possible. 
  
• Look to add more elements to the simulation to expand, refine and optimise it. This could include (but  is not limited to) things such as adding labour resources to activities to determine minimum staffing  levels to achieve maximum capacity or adding Inspection/Quality Control into the process. Highlight  potential bottlenecks in the process and seek to improve capacity and efficiency in the process  
  
• Conduct more experiments by running several trials. Repeated trials are where you measure the same  thing multiple times to make your data more reliable. This is necessary because in the real world, data  tends to vary, and nothing is perfect. The more trials you take, the closer your average will get to the  true value. 
  
• Discuss the findings from your simulations in a report (not more than 1500 words) with respect to your  original target goals.  
  
• To achieve high grade, use various function in Witness enhance the model. For example, you could use  a function to detect the number of parts currently on a conveyor. Timeseries allow you to present  simulation results on the screen in the form of a graph which plots values taken from the simulation against. Pie charts allow you to present simulation results on the screen in the standard pie chart  format. 
  
• Illustrate your report with screenshots of ways in which your simulation functions. Comment on your  results and justify your decisions for improvements. 

Part: B

Design A Product for Computer-Integrated Manufacturing 

THE BRIEF/INSTRUCTIONS  

• The main aim of this assignment is to give you experience with design and manufacturing using computer integrated manufacturing techniques. The goal of this task is to study the background in Computer Integrated Manufacturing (3D Printing and Laser Cutter) and to design and machine a mechanical part. 
• Studying the process involved in taking a part from design through manufacturing students will understand  the power and importance of Computer-Aided Machining in a modern manufacturing context. 
• Students are required to develop a MECHANICAL PUZZLE BOX that can be manufactured in the Digital  Fabrication laboratory (dFUEL) using existing facilities.  
• Manufacturability and assimilability considerations are of paramount importance at this stage due to the  nature of the hardware being used, and the sharing of the hardware with other student working on  different products.