In this paper, an algorithm for solving the packing problem using three-dimensional CAD data is proposed. Most of the papers for solving the packing problem consider a rectangular shape for parts. But, as a matter of fact, most of the parts are not rectangles. That said, this paper considers the parts shape as non-rectangular. Using heuristic SA (Simulated Annealing) as a method for changing solution, an efficient packing method can be proposed The composition of the units is considered. Thus, this paper takes in to consideration not only SNP (Standard Number of Pallet) but also workability.

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In this paper, an algorithm for line balancing considering parts allocation is proposed Line organization is generally composed of line balancing, that is time allocation, and of parts allocation, that is space distribution. It is necessary to consider them simultaneously to make working hours even and to make parts allocation visible and workable. Yet, there is no paper considering them simultaneously. This paper aims to overcome this drawback by taking into consideration situation where the increase in variety causes lack of space for parts.

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Supply chain management (SCM) improves efficiency of supply chains (SC) in terms of reduction of inventory and lead time. To the contrary, the pursuit of efficiency results in the vulnerability of SC and accelerates propagation of damage of risk incidents such as earthquake and factory fire. Therefore, supply chain risk management has became an important topic in SCM. In this paper, we propose a method of effects analysis of earthquake to the SC performance. Effects are evaluated in two steps. First, the effect of earthquake on the function, of a supply chain unit is evaluated by considering the malfunction of regional services such as transportation electric power and water supply. Secondly, propagation of the malfunction of the supply chain unit is evaluated by means of supply chain simulation.

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In this research, a product agent is proposed for the configuration of an autonomous decentralized manufacturing system which flexibly responds to high-mix very-low volume production. A product agent has its own product model. A product agent can select the machine to manufacture the product by referring to machine data and negotiation with other product agents. When the material for the product enters the production line, the corresponding product agent is dynamically generated. The agent confers with other agents on the production machine to be used for each job. The method of achieving the negotiation was examined by generating a production schedule. By this trial implementation, the advantage of the proposed agent-negotiation method was shown.

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In this research, to flexibly accommodate high-mix very-low-volume production, sudden failure, etc., an autonomous decentralized manufacturing system using machine tool agents is proposed. The machine tool agent is required to have a process planning function and a scheduling function. To realize these indispensable functions, the construction of the machine tool model is necessary. A machine tool agent performs process planning using a machine tool model and a product model. A machine tool agent communicates with other machine tool agents and determines a process plan. In the machine tool model, tool functions are described using XML. As a trial implementation, machine operation scheduling is performed using these XML descriptions.

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Cutting speeds on the cutting edge of Ball-nose end mill vary from the bottom to the top of the cutting edge, thus the portion of the cutting edge that has a suitable cutting speed should be used in the finish milling process. This paper describes a procedure of generation of surface element groups that can be machined by the high performance portion of cutting edge in the finish milling process. For this purpose, performance values of cutting points on the cutting edge are proposed. The tool attitude to the surface element is evaluated by the ratio of the area machined by the high performance portion of cutting edge based on proposed performance values. The tool attitude having maximum area of the surface elements that can be machined with the high performance is derived, and a set of surface elements that can be machined by the high performance portion of cutting edge for the tool attitude is obtained as the surface element groups.

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A job-shop scheduling problem is formulated in order to consistently manage every production equipment such as machine tool, assembly robot, AGV, storehouse, material shelf, and so on. In this paper, the scheduling problem is formulated as Mixed-Integer Programming focusing on finite capacity buffers. The validity of proposed formulation is evaluated by a commercially available optimization software.

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The purpose of the present research is to develop an integrated process planning and scheduling system, which is applicable to the holonic manufacturing systems (HMS). A basic architecture and systematic methods are proposed to determine suitable sequences of manufacturing equipment needed to manufacture the products and suitable production schedules for the manufacturing equipment in the HMS. Procedures are developed to carry out both the process planning and scheduling, by applying the genetic algorithm and dispatching rules.

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In the recent severe competitions, manufactures are facing many problems, such as, shortening lead time, saving product cost and so on. To solve these problems, many kinds of scheduling algorithms and production control policies have been proposed. However, it is not easy to realize higher efficiency and productivity without careful investigation and improvement in the objective manufacturing systems. We have proposed a concept of Distributed Virtual Factory (DVF) as a global manufacturing simulation environment. And several DVF models have been developed and utilized for evaluating their efficiency and productivity. In this paper, we implement the Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS) system as the manufacturing control system of a DVF model and the characteristics of APS is investigated through the experiments with the DVF model.

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In the compound processing, it is necessary to guarantee not only the quality of the manufactured product but also the stability of the manufacturing process. In this paper, the construction of the system to manage the operation of extrusion processing was examined. The system developed in conformity with the production process. Only in the display of the measurement value, it is difficult to understand what situation of extrusion processing. The system can have done not only the watch of the state of the processing but also the analysis of the state of the processing. Therefore, it was made to display in the trend graph because it clarified the situation. The system had the function to analyze the situation by the statistical method.

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Quality in ultra-precision cutting is not only accuracy of form, but also surface integrity. Therefore, in-process monitoring of the surface integrity may realize stable and high quality ultra-precision cutting in machining shops. However, measurement of surface integrity of ultra-precision cut surface is very difficult. Consequently, purpose of this study is to estimate surface integrity of ultra-precision cut surface by using indirect methods. In previous studies, it was revealed that tool flank wear strongly affects on integrity of machined surface. Furthermore, static cutting forces could be closely related with progress of tool flank wear. Taking account of these results, surface integrity of ultra-precision cut surface of aluminum alloy was investigated if it could be related with static cutting forces. As a result, it was demonstrated that integrity of machined surface could be monitored with static cutting forces.

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Feed drive systems with perpendicularly configured axes are commonly used in machine tool systems. Although orthogonal errors to desired cutting paths (contour errors) are important in machining, tracking errors with respect to each feed-drive axis are usually used in conventional control systems. In this paper, we propose a new controller design that can reduce the contour errors based on a complete coordinate transformation. Since it is difficult to calculate accurate contour errors online, we firstly define approximate contour errors for three-axis feed drive systems. Then we show a controller design that can reduce the contour errors independent of errors along the desired cutting paths. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated by experimental results.

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The conventional method of rough cutting employs the contour milling by 3-axis control. However, this rough cutting method was not always efficient, because several set-up changes were required to machine complicated shapes such as overhanging shape that requires the inclination of tool attitude. This study proposes the new rough cutting method applying a vertical milling with 5-axis control, which has been applied only for 3-axis control machining. As the result, the rough cutting method with both the highly efficiency of the vertical milling and the high flexibility of the 5-axis control machining was developed. Moreover, the devised method realizes the simple tool path generation process by appropriating the technique for the finishing path generation, and allows us to generate the interference-free cutter location data.

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There are many de facto standards of information communication systems depending on industries for device level for manufacturing systems. Also information-interoperable system between device level and manufacturing execution system level is needed. Therefore, this research discusses an information-interoperable environment between device level and manufacturing execution system level for multi-vendor and multi-device manufacturing systems. This paper describes a concept of the environment, a connection method of NC devices, which have no network interface and a development of prototype system based on the method.

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There are many de facto standards of information communication systems depending on industries for device level for manufacturing systems. Also information-interoperable system between device level and manufacturing execution system level is needed. Therefore, this research discusses an information-interoperable environment between device level and manufacturing execution system level for multi-vendor and multi-device manufacturing systems. This paper describes a remote monitoring application system using multi-media based on the information-interoperable environment.

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Effective production scheduling methods are required to realize efficient facility utilization and flexibility for variety production because of diversification of consumer needs and intensification of international competition. This paper proposes an adaptive product release scheduling method using reinforcement learning based a product release scheduler. The scheduler acquires suitable rules that decide product kind and its release timing based on the distribution of the WIP (Work In Process) in the production floor. The proposed method is applied to a multi-product semiconductor manufacturing system and computer simulations are executed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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A novel approach to topology and weight evolving artifitial neural networks (TWEANNs) is presented. This comes from the following two considerations. (1) Artificial evolution is designed without recombination which mostly generates an offspring of which fitness value is considerably reduced than parents. Instead of recombination, topological mutations are provided as genetic oprtations for inserting a neuron or for developing a synaptic connection, which are designed carefully to retain the current evaluation value. (2) A new encoding technique such that a string is defined as a set of substrings called operons is introduced. This is based on our idea that each potential function should be encoded into a different part of genetic information. In this research, we examine the evolution behavior by the change in the parameters for yielding good strategies.

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Solving the environmental problem has become an important issue in our society. In the design field, a new type of artifact has been pursued. In this study, the authors focus attention on the idea of "Latent Function". Latent Function is defined as a new function appeared when artifact's surroundings changes. If the number of artifacts with abundant Latent Function increases in society, the decrease of wasteful action and the improvement of recycling are expected. The purpose of this research is to extract features of the users' discovery process of Latent Function of an artifact. In the investigation, subjects are asked to find as much Latent Function as possible from several artifacts. From the above investigation, it is guessed that the Latent Function discovery process is related to the limit of the human cognitive ability. In this paper, the experiments on Latent Function discovery by users is reported and discussed.

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Recently, the social system must be changed to a sustainable cycle-oriented social system immediately. However, in many cases, most research focuses attention on production producers as the subject, and decision making at the time of product disposal of a consumer is seldom considered. In this paper, we suggest a hypothesis that it is effective for establishing the sustainable cycle-oriented society to enhance the variety of independent consumers' behaviors. So we suggest that consumers are influenced by the information support, and we aim to verify the validity of this hypothesis through the analysis of the changing stability of behavior and final disposal rates according to the various behaviors, by computer simulation.

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Recently, artificial systems have become large scale and complex. In this reseach, we focus on the imperfectly competitive market proposed in microeconomics, and build an oligopoly virtual market. In this paper, we propose a method for solving resource allocation problems with reality. Then we clarify the characteristics of the acquired solutions. Finally, we try to apply this method into a case study to validate its effectivity on artificial sysytems.

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Recently, consumers' needs are diversified. In Supply Chain Management(SCM), it is difficult to form effective partners in B2B negotiations. Therefore, it is important to analyze negotiation processes that include consumers' behavior. In our research, contract-net protocol is applied into the negotiation process which includes Maximum Likelihood Hierarchical(MLH) model. We propose a new B2B negotiation model and assess the properties of the propose model by simulation experiments. Finally, We confirm the validity of the propose model.

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This paper describes management control method of plant production and logistic System in disaster. First, allocation problem for plural oil plants in wide area and transfer routing of its products were solved using decentralized agent method. Then, management control of oil production and logistic system in disaster was studied. In case of disaster such as earthquake and big fire, destruction of some oil plant or a part of transfer routes may occur. Decentralize optimization method by agent is applied to such cases and surrogate plan of products supply was calculated.

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Manufacturing systems are required to change the manufacturing performance, such as manufacturing volume and cycle time, since consumer's needs change continuously. A new flexible manufacturing system called cellular manufacturing systems was proposed in order to satisfy this requirement. Cellular manufacturing systems need a suitable control method to change the manufacturing performance in case of unforeseen changes, such as delays of manufacturing processes. This research proposes a dynamic reallocation method of workers in cellular manufacturing systems by using Genetic Algorithm. This method provides new allocations of workers dynamically in order to minimize the tardiness of jobs. A prototype of reallocation support system was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

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This paper deals with a real-time scheduling method of HMS (Holonic Manufacturing System). A real-time scheduling process based on the estimation of future status of the HMS have been proposed and applied to the real-time scheduling problems of the HMS in the previous report. Only one holon estimates the future status of HMS to determine the next machining schedule by using a simulation, in the previous method. New systematic methods for the individual holons are proposed, in the paper, to make all the holons determine the next machining schedules based on the future status of HMS estimated by simulaton, aiming at improving the previous methods. The effectiveness of the proposed methods are verified through the case studies.

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A systematic scheduling method is required to modify the predetermined production schedules in order to cope with unforeseen changes in manufacturing systems. The objective of the present research is to propose a scheduling method based on GA (Genetic Algorithm) for modifying delayed production schedules due to the additional jobs, reactively. A prototype of reactive scheduling system is developed and applied to scheduling problems. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through the numerical experiments of the reactive scheduling problems.

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The CAM system for machining is introduced in many companies. But the determination of processing procedures, cutting conditions, etc. is left to the expert engineers. And the automation in consideration of engineer's experiences and know-how is difficult and is not put in practical use. In this research, in order to realize the automation, the expert system to select cutting conditions with processing data is developed. In this system, cutting conditions are reasoned using the processing case data. This system is not necessary to express engineer's experiences and know-how as a rule, like rule-based reasoning.

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In recent years, an attempt of intelligent machine tool using open CNC unit and network communication has been discussing. We are aiming at the development of the machining agent system that has the database of machining condition, process design and so on, and can treat various information through the network. The machining agent system can perform self-machining by inputting only 3D-CAD data. Developed software modules of the system generate NC data based on 3D-CAD data transmitted through the network, and determine the cutting condition. In this study, the management system based on the database using XML technology allows us to manage and accumulate the machining know-how and the information of cutting tools and target products.

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This paper describes one trial to compose technologically the ratio of the human resources who have different behavior principles; the group-oriented and the individual- oriented, to spread the process innovation quickly and continuously. 32 experiments were carried out on the condition that a student group of around 10 talks and suggests some kaizen plans about production. The trend and the ratio between a group-oriented person and an individual- oriented person for each student group were judged from questionnaire investigation. We examined remark number and changing opinion number in each questionnaire's mark. The result of experiments shows correlation is in them, and there is optimal ratio. So we developed a simulation showing such a relation tendency using complicated agent system. The simulations predict the number of people ratio to produce the high spread rate and the high presentation rate of kaizen plan. As a result we find restrictively more effective composition of those who belong different production culture to spread the process innovation faster than ever.

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Using the LEGO teaching materials, the radio control method which is easy for the learner from the beginner above the intermediate to vise developed vehicle type robot teaching materials by the device of the control software with the device of the operation mechanism. By the introduction of these teaching materials, the improvement with being considerable in the both sides with the quality and the quantity of the learning contents could be realized. As for these teaching materials, the learner can choose a wide range of features very easily. Moreover, by making use of merits of the marketing teaching material use, a lot of robot groups could be installed in the identical control range, it became easy to build more practicing status.

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This paper deals with a work support system to support novice workers in production, maintenance and disassembling work. We have developed a new support system that checks operation executed by worker with interactive processes between a worker and the support system. This paper discusses the interaction process design to adapt to worker competency. A software simulator that measures the capacity of human memory and learning is used to formulate a guideline for the interaction design. Then, an experiment on the work support system in actual assembly work is conducted. The assembly experimental result showed that worker could complete whole tasks without error and learn step by step although they attempted the tasks first time.

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A quantitative representation method of shape characteristics is studied to enhance design evaluation and marketability of Japanese-make motor vehicle in European market. Front view photographs of motor vehicles are investigated based on the proposed method. As a result, it is quantitatively made clear that there is rather difference in headlight and radiator grill design between European and Japanese motor vehicles. According to the result, a new front view design is figured out that is based on the Japanese-make motor vehicle and that introduces specific headlight and radiator grill design characteristics of European-make motor vehicle. It is verified by questionnaire investigation that the new design enhance design evaluation, compared with the original design.

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We developed the product design and the production system to which the quality was able to be concluded by each function module. Consistent informationization was done in the process of the design and the production of products. and, the making crowding of the function quality was done at the development early stage, and the stay of the person, the thing, and information was able to be lost, and the production that was able to conform to the customer's order was achieved thoroughly pursuing flexible and making to the speed.

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Recently there is a demand in the market for compact machine centers that can handle the works flexibly, precisely and efficiently for environmental reasons. We have developed what we call "bore finisher" on which we combine boring and honing process for a cylinder block bore of automobile engine, and it can deal with different bore sizes by changing the diameter of the tools automatically. The machine enables us to bore and hone two sizes of cylinder bore diameter at full random base using environmentally friendly water solvent coolant.

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Spot welding is used as the major welding method of steel sheet for automobile Body structure from past till current. One of the subjects, which still remain, is abolition of the chisel check in quality control side. In addition to work man-day, the line stop for work and sampling process are required. At the time of problem happens, the number of inferior products is the same as the number of welding process from the problem process to the check process. Therefore, it is a subject to automate a quality control and to carry out in welding process. We have developed the monitoring system, which monitors the resistance between electrodes under the welding, and, introduced into mass production. We introduce view of quality guarantee and present condition of practical use.

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We developed a high-speed vision robot system that can be applied to various types of products. The developed system consists of a robot with cameras, lights, and a computer for teaching and image processing. In the system many points on any faces of the product can be inspected without stopping with the help of the developed robot path planning and the synchronous method between robot path and image input. Developed inspection algorithm and unified environment enabled non-programming teaching operation. This system is currently in use in our plants so that it can be helpful in keeping high quality of products.

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New reengineering method based on a certain theoretical reason is required in order to improve and change the current production preparation process. We have studied the process reengineering methodology for production preparation. This paper shows the software support system for reengineering the production preparation process, which has been developed through the case study. The user interface of the developed system is the Microsoft Excel, with which the engineers are very familiar. They can describe the required knowledge for the system, with the relation diagram and the matrix formulation. Furthermore, the basic idea for the developed support system is introduced in this paper.

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We examine the technique for solving the scheduling problem in the flexible flow shop where processing time is uncertain. The conventional scheduling method for flexible flowshop is usually based on first out first in rule on each stage. However, there is no guarantee that a good solution can be obtained by this method, especially for the uncertain processing time. Then, in this study, we consider to express the distribution of uncertain processing time with a normal distribution. Then, we aim to develop the scheduling method which provides a robust solution to the change of the degree of uncertainty.

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This paper proposes novel simulation models for supply chain system simulation. The most remarkable characteristic of the proposed models is the discrete-continuous combined simulation modeling. The models include discrete-formed activities models for supply chain players and continuous-formed system models for supply chain management environment. The paper describes an overview of the proposed models, system dynamics models, and applications to gaming systems.

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In management of plants, it is difficult to utilize plant design and management data, because of the scale. Utilization of plant design and management information realizes smooth and optimum exchanges of information from generation to generation and between designers, manufacturers, operators and maintenance workers. To realize the utilization of plant design and management information, firstly we delve into ISO18435 Industrial automation systems and integration-Diagnostic, Capability, Assessment, and Maintenance Application Integration-and along with the ISO18435 activity domain integration diagram, we propose Software maintenance types and flows.

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