15/09/2015 - 4ZDM: Cluster on Zero-Defects Manufacturing

Update on ZDM concept

Zero-Defects Manufacturing (ZDM) is an emerging paradigm aiming at going beyond traditional six-sigma approaches in highly technology intensive and strategic manufacturing sectors through knowledge-based approaches.

ZDM approach brings added-value in particular in those industrial environments with high requirements such as mass production of high-added value parts, small batches, customized production or mass customization.

The ZDM paradigm in an industrial factory approach is composed by 5 relevant fields & layers. On one hand, workpiece, components & machine, and manufacturing process (in where error sources are located and ZDM tools should be implemented). On the other hand, shopfloor/plant and value-chain (in a more strategy layer).

The main objectives of ZDM approach are to get zero-defects in a production environment (i.e., to get it right at the first time), to achieve waste/scrap reduction, lower production costs, shorter production times, higher productivity & competitiveness, and last but not least, a higher resource& energy efficiency. All those goals should bring a significant competitiveness increase and job creation for the EU manufacturing industry.

Among the challenges that the ZDM approach brings to industries, it’s worth to highlight the identification of error sources & types, the identification of most problematic phases within a LifeCycle Assessment (LCA) approach, the clustering of errors (and subsequent solutions) according to the most common levels in an industrial shopfloor activity, and finally, the development & implementation of suitable ZDM tools as solutions for the upstream generation and downstream propagation of production defects.

Bibliographic references:

Westkämper E., “Zero-Defect Manufacturing by Means of a Learning Supervision of Process Chains”. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology vol. 43, pp. 405-408, 1994.

Schmitt R., Monostori L., Glöckner H., Viharos Z. J. “Design and assessment of quality control loops for stable business processes”. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology vol. 61, pp. 439-444, 2012.Myklebust O., “Zero defect manufacturing: a product and plant oriented lifecycle approach”. 8th CIRP Conference on Intelligent Computation in Manufacturing Engineering, Procedia CIRP vol.12, pp. 246-251, 2013.

Colledani M., Tolio T., Fischer A., Lung B., Lanza G., Schmitt R., Váncza J. “Design and management of man-ufacturing systems for production quality”. CIRP Annals - Manufacturing Technology vol. 63, pp. 773-796, 2014.

Wang, K.S. «Towards zero-defect manufacturing (ZDM)—a data mining approach». Adv. Manuf. (2013) 1:62–74, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2013

Key fields addressed by 4ZDM Cluster

One significant step forward of 4ZDM Cluster has been the mind change from thinking on individual projects (Midemma, Muprod, Ifacom, Megafit) to think on common targeted markets or industrial sectors. Apart from that, 4ZDM Cluster has addressed common research fields and manufacturing processes (as shown at the picture below)

Main results & demonstrators from 4ZDM Cluster projects

All the results & outcomes achieved at the 4 cluster projects, as well as the industrial cases configured for demonstration activities, have been collected at the EFFRA Innovation Portal (www.effra.eu).

As an example, results & demonstrators shown above are referred to Midemma and Muprod projects. Similar results may also be found for Ifacom and Megafit projects.

Apart from the individual project results, the cluster actuation may bring several advantages when identifying synergies and address other initially not considered targeted markets/sectors. This way, the 4ZDM Cluster can generate new potentials for exploitation of individual project results.

Last events

4ZDM Cluster has taken part actively in the ZDM Industrial Conference, hold in Oslo on April 2015, within the final meeting of one of its former cluster projects. Furthermore, the Cluster has participated at the MESIC-2015 conference (Manufacturing Engineering Society International Conference), hold at Barcelona on July 2015.

Acknowledgements:This project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Programme (H2020) under grant agreement n° 637090.http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?lg=en

Factories of the Future is a EUR 1.2 billion program in which the European Commission and industry are collaborating in research to support the development and innovation of new enabling technologies for the EU manufacturing sector. For further information please visit: http://ec.europa.eu/research/industrial_technologies/factories-of-the-future_en.html

www.focusonfof.eu