Stage 2 Wingquist laboratory

Wingquist Laboratory was a VINN Excellence Centre 2007–2017. This is a description of Stage 2.

In Stage 2, five projects, involving researchers from at least two of the complementary research groups and several of the industrial partners, were formulated. The five projects resulted in new software functionality and new working methods, described and implemented in 63 conference publications, 24 journal publications, 24 other publications and 11 industrial implementations.

Project 1: Robust Interfaces in a Platform-Based Approach

Project Leader: Peter Edholm (Research group: Geometry Assurance & Robust Design)

Background

Cost-effective product families with variants are based on platforms and modules. The functional decomposition and the interfaces between components in a product control the ability to modularize in an effective way. Robust geometrical interfaces will enable product variants with common and unique components to be handled efficiently throughout the design and manufacturing process and to be produced with higher quality.

Modern product and production development strategies, based on product families, platforms and modules, allow reuse of solutions and faster development. To be able to fully take advantage of such philosophies, configurable product structures and new ways to design and configure geometrical interfaces are needed.

A platform definition based on knowledge carrying subsystems has been developed in Stage 1. This approach provides much more configuration flexibility than a part-based defined platform. Such a configurable and knowledge-based platform architecture is also much more robust, as reuse of configurable subsystems instead of reuse of parts makes it possible to have the complete product knowledge contents available for redesign in order to meet new demands. Managing geometrical interfaces in such a knowledge-based platform architecture context is focused upon in the proposed project.

Project 2: Integrated Product and Production System Configuration

Project Leader: Kristofer Bengtsson (Research group: Flexible Automation)

Background

Fast design and generation of new products that meet new market demands are critical for many companies. A product platform with well-defined product architecture and a mechanism for fast configuration gives the potential for a company to drastically change the way it operates on the market and benefits from economies of scale. A new platform modeling strategy, combining customization with economy of scale, is proposed. The proposed strategy is based on a knowledge-based platform definition consisting of linked systems of configurable subsystems. The project will develop a configurable product and production system platform based on this approach. Such an integrated platform makes it possible to use product variant information to configure the integrated product and production system model and automatically generate unique lists of operations. In the configuration of the production system, the operation lists are adapted to available production resources. Control functions are generated to coordinate and supervise the production system. Much of this functionality can be automatically generated by formal methods and discrete optimization. Correct and optimal behavior can then be guaranteed according to the given product requirements and the related manufacturing operations.

Project 3: Assembly and Joining Sequence Optimization

Project Leader: Kristina Wärmefjord (Research group: Geometry Assurance & Robust Design)

Background

Design and production involve a number of complex sequences determining the order in which tasks and operations are to be carried out. Optimization of sequences for design activities, assembly, welding, sealing, painting etc. will enable production with highly increased equipment utilization, throughput and quality.

An important activity within product and process development is to optimize assembly and joining sequences. The assembly and joining sequence affects geometrical quality, feasibility and cycle time. Geometrical quality since different sequences allow, by design of locating and support schemes, for different levels of control of the variation propagation in the assembly system. Feasibility and cycle time since the sequence influences the dynamic packing/path planning process where there is a need to verify that all parts and tools have a collision-free assembly motion.

Project 4: Visualization and Perceived Quality Evaluation

​Project Leader: Karin Forslund (Research group: Geometry Assurance & Robust Design)

Background

Early concept studies and evaluations involve a number of decisions that have to be taken on the basis of uncertain or incomplete information, which constitutes a great risk for a company. Visualization of future products and processes with high level of realism and with respect to real manufacturing conditions, before they are built, has the potential to highly improve decision making in early design stages.

Visually sensitive design concepts often lead to production problems with scrap, rework and delays as a consequence. Therefore, new methods and tools for visualizing and evaluating design concepts with respect to form language and split-line solutions, including the effects of manufacturing variation, are needed.

The Perceived Quality of a product is highly related to the customer’s final perception of the product. In a complex assembled product like an automobile, a number of plastic, rubber and sheet metal parts are assembled together under over-constrained assembly conditions which deform the parts and affect the appearance of the product in a negative way.

Project 5: Configuration Rule Management

Project Leader: Johan Malmqvist (Research group: System Engineering & PLM)

Background

A configurable product platform is an efficient way to handle a wide range of product variation and offering and at the same time utilize a limited number of parts and components. To manage this in the different processes in the company, the product documentation is managed through a PDM system. However, when the variation of the product offering is increasing over time – including merger and acquisitions of companies – the environment for the engineer, when doing product changes, becomes more and more complex despite the support from the PDM system. Therefore, in the PDM system there is a need to organize the data into manageable sub-units in order to reduce the complexity for the engineer. Different solutions for the organization of sub-units will have different impact on the engineering documentation efficiency, and an optimization is needed. KOLA-logic is the way product definition information is organized and managed in the Volvo Group truck business’s main processes, Product Development, Sales-to-Order, Order-to-Delivery, and Delivery-to-Repurchase. It has been built on the basis of experiences (“know-how”) step by step during many years. A first attempt to create a complexity indicator has been developed.

Result

To measure the total centre performance, the overall scientific and industrial/societal goals for the centre were broken down into a number of indicators with specified goals for period 2-4 with the centre in full operation. The indicators were used for each project to measure project performance and were summarized to measure centre performance.