ABSTRACT
Lecturer, Concurrent Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering Design, Manufacturing Information and Database Systems; Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering, National University of Science and Technology, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe
2.1 Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS) ............................ 45 2.1.1 Components of an RMS ..................................................... 46 2.2 Mass Customization (MC) ............................................................. 47 2.2.1 Consolidated Key Activities and
Resources of Mass Customization ..................................... 48 2.2.2 Levels of Mass Customization ........................................... 48 2.2.3 e-Based Design Support and
Mass Customization Systems ............................................. 52 2.3 Multi-Level Fuzzy Decision Making in
Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems ........................................ 55 2.3.1 Challenges in Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems ..... 57 2.3.2 Reconfigurable Fuzzy Model ............................................. 57 2.4 Reconfigurable Manufacturing Machine Advisor (RMMA) ......... 59 2.4.1 Soliciting the Knowledge ................................................... 59
2.5 Technology Transfer Decision Support Systems (TTDSS) ........... 63 2.5.1 Decision Issues in Technology Transfer ............................. 64 2.5.2 Modeling a Technology Transfer Decision
Support System (TTDSS) .................................................. 65 2.6 Conclusion ..................................................................................... 69 Keywords ................................................................................................ 71 References ............................................................................................... 71
Manufacturing is one of the most important sectors of any economy. The high priority given to the sector by governments of different nations as well as from the management of the firms has also exposed the sector to stiff competition. Traditionally, manufacturers were producing for their local countries but the trend has drastically transformed to global focus, denoted as “Global Manufacturing.” The transition led to the evolution of new design trends for manufacturing systems, which can be categorized into Dedicated Machine Tools (DMT), Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS) and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (RMS). The revolution of the manufacturing industry can also be tracked from industry 1.0, industry 2.0, industry 3.0, to the current level, industry 4.0. Manufacturers are under pressure to offer cost effective products, improve the quality of manufactured products, achieve higher efficiency, improve communication, and completely integrate their processes. Large quantities of data are being collected in manufacturing factories, either on real-time or “postmortem” basis. Numerous decisions need to be made using accumulated data so that factories can be more effective in their routine operation.
