Ongoing PhD projects:
PhD Student Jesper Puggaard de Oliveira Hansen
Adaptable automation driven by simulation and digital twins (MADE)
This project is supported by MADE – Manufacturing Academy Denmark and Siemens A/S.
The goal is to research the value chain from product development to operation and how to use simulation and digital twin to increase adaptability for design, planning and operation of automation solutions. The focus will be from machine builder to the end customer where innovative adaptable machine modules will be designed and integrated into adaptable production cells based at specifications from the end user.
The goal is to develop an integrated framework, where virtual models are linked to physical counterparts. In the collaboration between universities and Siemens, innovative use of the PLM and automation tools will be applied and further developed, leading to real demonstrators in the laboratory environment as well as at the case company Velux.
For further information, please contact Jesper Puggaard de Oliveira Hansen, jesperp@iti.sdu.dk or Arne Bilberg, abi@iti.sdu.dk
PhD Student
Completed PhD projects:
PhD Student Christian Petersson Nielsen
Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems: From Design to Operations
August 2019 - April 2023
In recent years, the need for more flexible manufacturing systems has increased. This is caused by the consumers’ increasing demand for more individualized products at a low price point. To achieve this, the manufacturing companies must be able to produce products with a wide variety and high production volume. This requires a multitude of flexibility types, such as product flexibility, control program flexibility, material handling flexibility, and similar. One of the manufacturing system paradigms that address these types of flexibility is Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems, also often denoted Matrix Production.
Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems consist of reconfigurable, standardized work cells, typically scattered in a matrix pattern, with a flexible non‐linear material flow between the work cells. The current literature on this type of manufacturing system is primarily focused on the design of the manufacturing system and its critical components of it. This means that the current literature does not address the transition from design to operations of this manufacturing system. This research gap is addressed in the PhD thesis, which investigates:
1) How Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems facilitate flexibility,
2) How to design Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems, and
3) How to control Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems
Based on the results from the research questions, Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems are discussed in relation to a supply chain perspective. This perspective pays special attention to the resilience that is both enabled and required, when implementing this type of manufacturing system. Additionally, a sustainability perspective is discussed in connection with the supply chain perspective. Finally, Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems are discussed as an enabler for new business opportunities, such as Manufacturing‐as‐a‐Service. With this foundation, a discussion and reflection on Matrix‐Structured Manufacturing Systems as a manufacturing system of the future is presented.