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Providing operationsexpertise for theresponsive, efficient

and lean enterprise

Lean Engineering Research Group

Professor Dave Stockton

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Research areasRESEARCH AREAS

Operations design, planning andcontrol of complex workenvironments

Autonomous planning ofcomplex systems

Implementing Lean & 6-improvement practices

Supply chain demandforecasting and resourceplanning

Servitisation & service support

High variety/low volume flowprocessing Product & process cost

modelling

BUSINESS RELEVANCE Increasing levels of product

& demand customisation andservitisation

Increasing levels of product& process development

Increasing levels ofcomplexity in the operationsenvironment

Need for increased levels ofcompetitiveness cost,quality, lead time, delivery,productivity and choice

Increasing environmentalconcern

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100th

Generation:

5 Operators

150th

Generation:

4 Operators

1stGeneration:

8 Operators

50

th

Generation:6 Operators

Multi-Part Flexible Manpower Lines

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Material entry points Schedule release points Capacity constrainedprocesses

Divergent, convergentbottleneck processes

Shipping points

Self-optimising modelsfor synchronous materials flow

Material

Entry

Process

Process

Capacity

Constrained

ProcessProcess

Divergent

Process

Process

Process

Convergent

ProcessProcess

Bottleneck

Process

Process

Shipping

Exit

ProcessSR

P

SR

P

SR

P SR

P

SR

P

SR

P

Backward

Schedule

Foreward

Schedule

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Cost modelling using Artificial NeuralNetworks & Fuzzy Logic

0 10 20 30

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

0

TruthValues

Surface Curvature

Complexity

Curvature is

Moderate

Curvature

is ComplexCurvature

is Simple

0 10 20 30

0.20

0.40

0.60

0.80

1.00

0

TruthValues

Surface Curvature

Complexity

Curvature is

Moderate

Curvature

is ComplexCurvature

is Simple

Metric

processing

element

pe1

pe2

pe3

Metric

pe5

pe6

pe7

pe4

Roll

Changing

Cost

Hidden

Layer

Input

Layer

Output

Layer

Input

Values

External

Shape

Complexity

(x2)

Complexity

of

Curves

(x1)

Average

PlyLength

(x3)

PlyLay-Up

Cost

Inspection

Cost

http://www.perkins.com/

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Automatic development of cost models

Data miningof outputfrom VirtualEngineering

models toidentify costrelationships

http://www.ldvmaxus.com/index.htm

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Accelerated process excellenceusing virtual process simulation

Advanced Visualization

Self-OrganisedRelationships

Optimization Performance Analysis

Creative ProblemSolving Lean Training Change Management

Figure 1: V-DEPS

Performance& results

analysis toolOptimisationtool

Simulationmanagement

tool

Changemanagement

tool

Creativeproblem

solving tool

Advanced visualisation capability & lean training environment

ExternalI/O

Self-organised

relationshipnetworks

Runsimulations& optimise

Modelupdating

Identifylean

changesAnalyseresults

Tools to visualisethe operation ofcomplex systems

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Improving demand forecasting andresource planning using AI techniques

Fuzzy Logic - dataaggregation

Artificial neuralnetworks - knowledge

retrieval and modeldevelopment Genetic algorithms

optimisation ofsystem and supply

chain inventory andcapacity plans

K

nowledge

Id

entification

System

Knowledge

Co

llection

System

Knowledge

AnalysisSystem

Optimiser

Is

forecasting

accuracyOK?

Forecasting

ModelsApplication

No

Yes

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Principles of self-organisation