UME510: INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

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UME510: INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION

Recommended Books:
1.Groover, M. P., Automation, Production System & Computer
Integrated Manufacturing, Pearson Education Asia (2009).
2.Nakra, B. C., Automatic Control, New Age International (2005).
3.Morriss, S. B., Automataed Manufacturing Systems, McGraw Hill
(2006).
4.Majumdar, S. R., Pneumatic Systems, McGraw Hill (2005).
5. Anthony Esposite, Fluid Power with Application, Prentice Hall
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Tentative Course Evaluation Scheme

MST

:30 Marks

EST

:45 Marks

Quiz1 and 2

:10 marks

Labs /Tutorials

: 15 Marks

TOTAL

: 100 Marks

AUTOMATION
Automation: Automation is the use of energy of a non living system to
control and carryout a process or operation without direct human
intervention.
OR Automation is a technology concerned with the application of
mechanical, electrical and computer based systems to operate and
control production.
OR System in which a process is performed by a machine without the
direct participation of a human worker.
Two Levels:
Semi Automated
Perform a portion of work cycle
Fully Automated
Operate for extended period without attention
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AUTOMATION
Basic Elements of an Automated System: An automated system
consists of three basic elements:
1) Power to accomplish the process and operate the system
2) A Program of instructions to direct the process, and
3) A Control system to actuate the instructions
The relationship amongst these elements is as follows:
(1)
(2)
Program of
Instructions

(3)
Control
System

Power
Process
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AUTOMATION
Five Levels of Automation and Control in Manufacturing

AUTOMATION
Reasons or Needs for Automation:
1) To increase the labor productivity
Greater output per hour of labor input
2) To reduce labor cost
Higher investment in automation economically justifiable to
replace manual operations. Machines are increasingly being
substituted for human labor to reduce unit product cost.
3) To fulfill the efforts of labor shortages
There is a general shortage of labor in many advanced nations
and this has stimulated the development of automated
operations as substitute for labor.
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AUTOMATION
4) To reduce or eliminate routine manual and clerical tasks

5) To improve worker safety

6) To improve product quality

7) To reduce manufacturing lead time

By reducing manufacturing lead time, manufacturer also
reduces work-in-process inventory.
8) To accomplish processes that cannot be done manually
9) To avoid the high cost of not automating
Companies that do not automate are likely to find themselves at
a competitive disadvantage with their customers, their
employees and the general public.
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Automated Manufacturing Systems operate in the factory
on the physical product.
They perform operations such as processing, assembly,
inspection, or material handling etc.
They are called automated because they perform their
operations with a reduced level of human participation
compared with the corresponding manual process.
In some highly automated systems, there is virtually no
human participation.
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Types:
Fixed Automation System
Programmable Automation System
Flexible Automation System

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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Fixed Automation System
The sequence of processing operations is fixed for one
particular product.
high production rates

Such a system can be used for mass production of a

product.
Its initial cost is high for custom-engineered equipment
and any change in product design can be difficult to
incorporate.
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Fixed Automation System
If product design has been changed, then lot of
modifications may be required and recommended shape
would be very costly and time consume.
Example:
Machining transfer lines and automated assembly machines,
feeding of a rotating spindle.

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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Programmable Automation System
In programmable automation system(as with N.C.
machines and robots), it is possible to accommodate the
change of sequence of operations for new product by
changing of programme.

Such a system is thus suited for batch production .

For new product not only programmed has to change but
new tools may be to be loaded and machine setup change.
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Programmable Automation System
Some of the features of programmable automation are
high investment in general purpose equipment

lower production rates than fixed automation

flexibility to deal with changes in product configurations

Mostly suitable for batch production(used in low- and

medium-volume production).
Example:
Numerically Controlled (NC) Machine tools, Industrial
robots and Programmable logic controllers(PLC).
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Flexible Automation System
Flexible automation system
programmable automation.

is

an

extension

of

A flexible automated system is one that is capable of

producing a variety of products with virtually no time lost
for changeovers from one product to the next product.
There is no loss of production time while reprogramming
the system and altering the physical setup like tooting,
fixtures, machine settings.
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Flexible Automation System
Some of the features of flexible automation are
high investment for a custom-engineered system
continuous production of variable mixtures of products
medium production rate,
flexibility to deal with product design variations
off line programming and palletized workpices are the
main features of this system
Examples: Flexible manufacturing systems for performing
machining operations that date back to the late 1960s.
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AUTOMATION SYSTEM
Three types of automation, relative to production quantity
and product variety are as follows:

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AUTOMATION
NOTE: A number of situations where manual labour is
usually preferred over automation:

(a) Task is too technologically difficult to automate

(b) Short product life cycle
(c) Customized product
(d) To cope with ups and downs in demand
(e) To reduce risk of product failure

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Relative Strengths and Attributes of Humans

and Machines
Relative Strengths of Humans
Sense of unexpected stimuli
Develop new solutions to problems

Cope with abstract problems

Adapt to change
Generalize from observations
Learn from experience
Make difficult decisions based on incomplete data

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Relative Strengths and Attributes of Humans

and Machines
Relative Strengths of Machines
Perform repetitive task consistently
Store large amounts of data

Retrieve data from memory reliably

Perform multiple tasks at same time
Apply high forces and power
Perform simple computations quickly
Make routine decisions quickly

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Automation Principles and Strategies:

Some time automation is not always the right answer for a
given production situation. A certain care must be followed
in applying automation technologies. There are three
approaches to be followed for dealing with automation
projects :
(1) The USA principle
(2) The ten strategies for automation and production
systems and
(3) An automation migration strategy

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The USA principle

The USA principle is a common sense approach for any
automation projects and it is applicable to nearly any
automation project.
USA stands for:
(a) Understand the existing process
(b) Simplify the process
(c) Automate the process

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Ten Strategies for Automation and Production

Systems
If automation seems a feasible solution to improve
productivity, quality or other measure of performance, then
following ten strategies provide a road map to search for
these improvements.
(1)Specialization of Operations: The first strategy involves
the use of special purpose equipment designed to perform
one operation with greatest possible efficiency.
(2) Combined Operations:

complex parts usually involve a large number

of sequential processing steps. Each step involves material handling time, set-up
time etc. which can minimize if more than one operations are performed at one
station whenever permissible/possible. Thus, the number of machines through which
the part must be routed is reduced and non-operation time and work handling is also
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reduced.

Ten Strategies for Automation and Production

Systems
(3)Simultaneous of Operations: A simultaneous operations
is a strategy to perform simultaneously the operations that
are combined at one work station. Thus, reducing the total
processing time.
(4) Integration of Operations: A strategy is to link several
work stations together into a single integrated mechanism
using automated work handling devices to transfer parts
between stations without involving operators. For this
purpose, it is possible to process several parts
simultaneously to increase the overall output.
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Ten Strategies for Automation and Production

Systems
(5) Increased Flexibility: This strategy aim is to achieve
maximum utilization of equipment for job production and
medium volume production by using the same equipment
for a variety of products. It reduces set-up time,
programming time resulting into reduced manufacturing
lead time and or less work-in-process.
(6) Automated Material Handling and Storage: This strategy
reduces non-productive time, manufacturing lead-time and
also result into reduce work-in-process.
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Ten Strategies for Automation and Production

Systems
(7) Incorporation of Inspection: It permits corrections to the
process as the product is being made. This reduces scrap
rate, non-operation time and improve product quality.
(8) Process Control and Optimization: In wide range of
control, schemes can be introduced to operate the individual
processes and associated equipment to perform at its
optimum point, there by reducing operating time and
improving quality of product.

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Ten Strategies for Automation and Production

Systems
(9) Plant Operations Control: This strategy instead of
concentrating only on production machines it concern with a
control at a plant level. It thus again to mange and
coordinate the accurate operation in the plant at there level
best. It implement a high level of computer networking
within the factory.
(10) Computer Integrated Manufacturing(CIM): This
strategy integrate the factory operations with engineering
design and the business functions of the firm. CIM involves
extensive use of computer applications, computer data base
and computer networking throughout the enterprise.
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Automation Migration Strategy

It is formalized plan for evolving(i.e. developing from simple
to complex) manufacturing systems used to produce new
products as demand increases.
A typical automation migration strategy is the following
phases:
Phase1: Manual Production: It is using single station manned
cells operating independently at quick and low cost tooling to
get started.

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Automation Migration Strategy

Phase2: Automated Production: It is using single station
automated cells operating independently to reduce labour and
increase production rate. Work units are still moved between
work stations manually.

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Automation Migration Strategy

Phase3: Automated Integrated Production: It is using a multistation automated systems with serial operations and
automated transfer of work units between stations for
producing mass quantities.

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Automation Migration Strategy

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Automation Migration Strategy

Advantages of such a strategy are:
(a) It allows introduction of the new product in the shortest
possible time as production cells based on manual work
stations are the easiest to design and implement.
(b) It allows automation to be introduced gradually as demand
for the product grows.
(c) It avoid the commitment to a high level of automation
from the start, because there is always risk that demand for
the product will not justify it.

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Advanced Automation Functions

It is concerned with enhancing the performance and safety of
the equipment.

Advanced automation functions include the following:

Safety monitoring
Maintenance and error diagnostics and
Error detection and recovery

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Advanced Automation Functions

Please refer the M.P. Groover book Automation, Production

Systems and CIM

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