The implementation of CIM in a manufacturing plant
CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) involves all the range of product development and manufacturing activities using dedicated software packages to carry out all functions. It is an integrative tool which is capable of increasing the quality, productivity, and gives an organization a competitive edge over others. CIM has also been seen as a management technology which has made the possibility of achieving, in the future, a fully automated factory feasible. This is due to the fact that CIM allows an organization to fully control and integrate all manufacturing and design functions, thereby automating them. CIM therefore provides massive menu of possibilities involving numerous processes, software and hardware adapting each one of them to carry out a specified industrial needs.
In today’s manufacturing industry, due to the rapid rate at which product technology is changing the emerging trend in CIM involves PDM (Product Data Management) systems. For any CIM installation to be successful, PDM must not be disregarded as it is the backbone of data management in a CIM environment. And in addition, the network protocol and the database management system must be able to integrate with each other, as this integration is critical for the support, delivery, and development of object oriented client/server documents.
For a manufacturing plant below is the CIM model approach I would adopt.
In order to attain complete automation of the manufacturing plant all functions will be computer controlled, that is, one integrated computer system would control every function.
- The first stage involves Computer Aided Design. The design of the product would be first created on the computer, with all its functions simulated and tested on the computer system prior to the creation of the prototype. This allows for alterations and improvements to be made to the design according to the observations made during the simulations and testing. Once the product’s performance is satisfactory during testing and simulation then we move to the next stage.
- Creation of Prototype: This stage involves the development/creation/manufacturing of the product prototype; this would be done machines which produces an accurate 3D model e.g. CNC routers, 3D printers, and laser cutters.
- At this stage, I will make use of the computer system controlling the plant to work out the method of manufacture that is most efficient by calculating the costs of production, methods of production, quantity that each method can produce at a particular period of time, and then the storage and distribution.
- The computer system would be made to order all materials required for the manufacture of the products. I would program this computer system to only place order for materials as needed at a particular point in time and to automatically reorder whenever the need arises.
- Here I would make use of CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture) to initiate product manufacturing. As CAM makes it possible for the computer system to be used to control CNC machines which includes CNC lathes; CNC routers; laser cutters and so on.
- At this stage, I would include quality control by testing products using computer control inspections which would test for the accuracy of every stage of the manufacturing process and thereby ensures that they all perform their tasks in the right way.
- Here, the product assembly is done by robots. The robots would have been programmed to be computer system controlled.
- Here the products would be automatically stored for distribution. Computer controlled vehicle would be made to transport the finished goods to the storage facility. Also, the computer system would be programmed to keep track of each individual good as they would each have a barcode and also perform a quality check on them.
- Here the process of moving product from stores to transport trucks for distributions would also be automated via the use of computer controlled automation system.
- This will deal with the financial aspect of the manufacturing process. The computer system will update financial accounts by making appropriate calculations of all the financial activities that has been carried out.
2. Identification of the stake holders who should be consulted.
CIM requires all those associated with an organization be totally involved in the process of product development and manufacture.
3. What information is required on which to base a successful implementation plan?
A successful implementation plan should be based on defined metrics which allows us to assess whether the organizational needs are met or not. Such metrics should include information on:
- Capacity: The information gotten on capacity should be seen as the most important as capacity itself should be the most important factor that is considered in planning.
- Production Process: The information
- Maintenance
4. A discussion of the possible challenges to implementation.
The implementation of CIM is usually faced by two categories of challenges namely; Technical and cultural. The technical challenge comes from the varying applications involved in CIM, the number of vendors served by the CIM, lack of compatibility of the systems involved, and also the lack of standards for communications, formatting as well as data storage. The organization would need to train individuals in several phases of the CIM in order to make them understand how things are done. The cultural problem occurs as a result of the division of the functional units (process planning, marketing, finance, operations and so on) within the organization, this leads to integration and adaptability problem in the implementation of CIM. For CIM to be fully effective there is a need for the whole functional unit to act as one entity and not as separate ones. It is noteworthy to state that the greatest challenge to CIM implementation is defining exactly what the implementation should be made up of since CIM involves a very broad range of technologies.
5. Predicted possible improvements in terms of:
- Information flow: The most significant benefit of CIM is the improvement in the communication and control of information flow to every facets of the organization. Once there is integration of information and organization there will surely be a decrease in the logistical size of the organization when viewed from the management, administrative and information-sharing perspectives.
- Productivity: once it is well implemented CIM would deliver an exponential increase in productivity, responsiveness and cost-efficiency all through the organization. This is usually done by addressing every major functional area of the manufacturing plants.
- Flexibility: Once CIM is deployed in every aspect of a manufacturing enterprise new programs can be created and input into the equipment and programs can be edited with ease. CIM affords an organization the flexibility to deal with alterations in the product configuration and flexibility to deal with variations in the product design.
- flexibility/agility: Another benefit of CIM system is that it proffers increased flexibility and agility which helps to achieve an swift response to process changes, production changes, equipment changes, personnel changes and so on.
- Quality: CIM does not only lead to production of parts at faster rates, these parts are also produced with greater conformity and consistency with quality standards. CIM leads to an improvement in products quality.
- Stock levels: Since parts are produced at faster rates, CIM results in increased productivity of labor which means greater output would be produced per hour of inputs.
- Customer Satisfaction: CIM enables the organization to reduce the interval between product delivery and the customer order which automatically means better customer service and will result to better customer satisfaction.
6. A description of any automation that may be undertaken
Since the manufacturing process involves process planning, quality control, packaging, and production CAM system can be used to automate any of these processes. CAM systems afford the computer ability to interface either directly or indirectly with the plant’s production resources. One of the CAM applications available is the numerical control (NC) which can be used to control and thereby automate machine tools that performs specific tasks e.g. grinding, cutting, milling, and bending. The NC is able to achieve this automation process by inputting information from the CAD database on addition to that provided by the machine operator. The CAM uses data processing unit (DPU) and control loop unit (CLU) to process and convert instructions received into control signals which operate the drive mechanism of the machine tool.
References
[1] Johansen, J., Karmarkar, U., Nanda, D., Seidmann, A., "Computer Integrated Manufacturing: Empirical Implications for Industrial Information Systems," Journal of Management Information Systems, Volume 12, Issue 2 (Fall 1995) pp. 59-70.
[2] Weston, F.C., "Three Dimensions of CIM," Production and Inventory Management Journal," Volume 35, Issue 1, First Quarter, (1994) pp. 59-64.
[3] Gould, L., "CIM is Easier than Ever," Systems Integration, (December, 1989) pp: 54-59.
