Talking about Manufacturing System never be boring because it will always evolve. The evolution can be in the term of technology, materials, and other factors of manufacture. One of the examples are the topic discussed in the previous meeting which is automation. Automation classified into two big terms, which are manufacturing automation and service automation. It is dealing with mechatronics and computers in doing the production. In this topic, there are some subtopics, such as the elements of an automated system, types of automation, and reasons either apply the automation or not.
Another word to define automation is technology without human assistance during completing the production process. There are three basic elements in automation, which are power, a program of instruction, and a control system. Power to perform automation divided into two areas. First, power for the process that can drive the process, load and unload the work unit, and does the transport during the operations. Second, there is power for automation; it includes the controller unit, actuating control signal, and process the information. Besides power, automation needs a program of instruction to set commands needed by the machine to do its job. After that, there is a control system. There are two types of control systems, which are the closed-loop control system where there is a feedback two compare the input parameter and output variable. The other one is the open-loop control system where there is no feedback on it and usually simpler and less expensive compared to the closed-loop control system.
There are three types of automation. First, fixed automation. It used for a high demand production because it has maximum efficiency and low unit cost. Second, programmable automation. It used for batch production and product with some categories because it has the flexibility to deal with changes in the product. Third, there is flexible automation. Usually, this automation applied for a product that has a variety and high complexity in the design. However, each of those three types has its disadvantages. The advantages of fixed automation are it has large initial investment and high in inflexibility. Programmable automation requires a long set up for the new product and high unit cost. Then, flexible automation has large initial investment and unit cost compared to two of the other two types.
There are some reasons why a company either use an automated system or not in producing their product. The first reason is by using automation, the company can increase its productivity. Second, automation is more safety because there are very few numbers of worker needed, it automatically reduces the work accident that can be endangering the workers. Third, it can reduce the labor cost because mostly the production process is done by machine. On the contrary, there are also some reasons why a company does not apply automation. First, there is a high initial investment because they must buy a new machine. Second, they need to do training for their workers which needs another cost and it requires a time that can delay their production. If not, the company must hire a worker that has a high level of education and skills which need a high cost to pay them.
There is also a discussion about types of production, plant layout, and group technology. Unfortunately, because there is a limit in the number of pages, it would be better to write down the important thing of automation. It does not mean that types of production, plant layout, and group technology are not important. Yes, they are still important, but there are a few discussions about them in this topic. Other than that, it acts as a sub-subtopic in the automation. That is all the summary of the previous meeting. In conclusion, hopefully, what has been written above is useful and can help other students in studying the manufacturing system.
Fani Fafas Tafia 