Manufacturing is one of the most crucial sectors of the economy. In recent years, more and more countries are realizing that manufacturing brings wealth to their societies. Performance of a manufacturing system is very critical to the success of a manufacturing business. Design of manufacturing systems has a significant impact on how well the manufacturing system perform. However, no consensus of an efficient and effective approach has so far been established. The objective of this research is, therefore, to develop a conceptual design methodology for manufacturing systems. In the context of this thesis, manufacturing systems are referred to enterprise systems, which cover the entire spectrum of activities including product design, planning, material management, fabrication, assembly an...[ Read more ]

Manufacturing is one of the most crucial sectors of the economy. In recent years, more and more countries are realizing that manufacturing brings wealth to their societies. Performance of a manufacturing system is very critical to the success of a manufacturing business. Design of manufacturing systems has a significant impact on how well the manufacturing system perform. However, no consensus of an efficient and effective approach has so far been established. The objective of this research is, therefore, to develop a conceptual design methodology for manufacturing systems. In the context of this thesis, manufacturing systems are referred to enterprise systems, which cover the entire spectrum of activities including product design, planning, material management, fabrication, assembly and service logistics.

In this thesis, the manufacturing system design methodology has been developed through 1) extending axiomatic design theory to encompass enterprise wide scope, 2) applying CIMOSA as the underpinning framework to describe manufacturing enterprise and 3) providing manufacturing system model formalism (object oriented and IDEFO modeling method) to support the design process. The methodology has been validated by case studies, which have been presented to illustrate the concepts and the applicability. The engineering and integration work to the selected theory, methods and tools help overcome their individual limitations and improve their applicability in manufacturing system design. This research has created significant values to designers and made significant contribution to the subject.