Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454

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Journal of Manufacturing Systems

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Technical Paper

Flexibility in manufacturing automation: A living lab case study of Norwegian

metalcasting SMEs
Rhythm Suren Wadhwa
Inst. for produksjons-og kvalitetstek, NTNU Valgrinda, Trondheim 7491, Norway

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Flexibility can be dened as the ability to respond efciently to the changing demands of the customer and
Received 29 May 2012 is different in SMEs (Small-to-Medium manufacturing Enterprises) than the traditional OEMs (Original
Received in revised form 17 July 2012 Equipment Manufacturers). Costs involved in implementing manufacturing exibility to meet customer
Accepted 18 July 2012
demand are more important in the SMEs, especially that are labor intensive for example metalcasting
Available online 9 August 2012
companies, when located in a high cost country like Norway. Therefore the Norwegian Research Council
initiated the Autocast project to promote SME business cooperation and exibility by automating the
Keywords:
manufacturing processes within the Norwegian casting/foundry SMEs. The project intends to identify and
SME metalcasting
Foundry automation
improve the areas crucial for exible manufacturing to help SMEs stay competitive in global competition.
Manufacturing exibility Literature conrms the difculty in the development of objective measures for exibility, for example,
Operations because of its property of multidimensionality. Nevertheless, an attempt has been made in this paper to
Norway identify the suitability of essential spheres of manufacturing exibility to a foundry set-up accompanied
by two living lab foundry case studies. The paper also completes the set of design rules specically for
foundry automation and assist exibility in manufacturing. Efforts have been made to sustain the existing
exible automation implementation on the basis of poka-yoke principles. The ndings from the living
lab case study assist in proposing the design for exible foundry automation (DFFFA) guidelines for exible
automation in a consortium collaborative environment could allow for better response to customer needs
and support on-the-move interaction collaboration.
2012 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction to Europe, with a huge potential to generate wealth, jobs and a

Globalization has created an environment of similar opportuni-
ties for manufacturing competitors around the world [14]. It has
created a world market driven by erce competition among com-
panies that are located in different parts of the world but produce
similar products. Organizations, both large and small, require a set
of recongurable equipment to meet customer demands of one
of kind, or small batch quantities of customized products. Client
demands for small volumes of customizable product leads to a
paradigm shift in how effectively a SME (less than 250 employees
and less than D50 million annual turnover: European Commission
2010); would operate to satisfy varying customer demands.
Flexible automation allows rapid recongurability of the pro-
duction system in order to manufacture several different products,
achieving high degree of machine utilization, reduction of in-
process inventory, as well as decrease in response times to meet
the changing customer preferences. Automation is the force behind
the rationalization of manufacturing processes to increase compet-
itiveness and productivity. Manufacturing is of high importance
E-mail address: rhythm.s.wadhwa@ntnu.no
better quality of life. Manufacturing activity in Europe represents
approximately 21% of the EU GDP and provides about 20% of all
jobs (more than 30 million) in 25 different industrial sectors, largely
dominated by SMEs.
The ability to respond efciently to the changing demands
of the customer and is different in SMEs (Small-to-Medium
manufacturing Enterprises) than the traditional OEMs (Original
Equipment Manufacturers). Literature shows that the central dis-
tinction between large and small rms is the greater external
uncertainty of the environment in which the small rm operates,
together with the greater internal consistency of its motivations
and actions [24]. It has been observed that identifying best practices
is a tricky process difcult to implement, which is more notice-
able when the companies are small- to medium-sized enterprises
(SMEs). Typically, SMEs have severe resource constraints and lim-
ited knowledge of manufacturing automation methodologies.
Costs involved in implementing manufacturing exibility via
automation, to meet customer demand are more important in
the SMEs, especially those that are labor intensive for example
metalcasting companies, when located in a high labor cost coun-
tries. Metalcasting companies are particularly in need of help from
automation technology, because of some of the drivers listed below

0278-6125/$ see front matter 2012 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2012.07.008
 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454
Casting process is intensive in manual labor.
The extreme environmental conditions of handling hot molten
metal, dust, and HSE issues such as injury from handling sharp
hot cast parts.
Inspite of the above drivers as mentioned above these SMEs face
a major deterrent standing in the way of automating the process
and that is due to high part variability resulting from differ-
ent metal cooling rates. This makes the implementation of an
automation solution especially a challenge.
In this article we have chosen an action research approach,
which means that we enter a real industrial situation with the aim
of both improving it and creating knowledge. Action research is
well suited methodology for the living lab, since both approaches
emphasize interaction between theory and practical situation,
involves multiple stakeholders with distinct roles, and highlight
the importance of constant reection in order to follow up with
the implementation results.
This paper provides a comprehensive compilation of general
exible manufacturing parameters that could be applicable to
metalcasting SMEs. A limitation of the study is the number of
SME foundries (nine national foundries). A detailed analysis of
results based on such small sample of participants is not practi-
cal, nevertheless this number is representative of the total foundry
businesses in the country. The paper helps in the development
of further studies in the addressing the automation needs of the
foundry industry.
2. Industrial context
Literature shows that the central distinction between large and
small rms is the greater external uncertainty of the environment
in which the small rm operates, together with the greater internal
consistency of its motivations and actions [24]. It has been observed
that identifying best practices is a tricky process difcult to imple-
ment, which is more noticeable when the companies are small-
to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Typically, SMEs have severe
resources and limited knowledge of automation methodologies.
Additionally, the company culture is not prone to change and learn,
as observed in many cases.
There have been very limited published studies for SME
foundries, and to help them establish tools to promote competitive-
ness. Ribiero et al. [19] developed a methodology for benchmarking
the Portuguese SME metalcasting consortium (eight foundries),
to promote business cooperation within the industry and enlarge
available business information. This study only focused on devel-
oping a performance measurement framework, and identied
developing manufacturing exibility as a critical factor for measur-
ing innovation in manufacturing. Spangler et al. published results
proposing manufacturing performance measurement tools related
to the metalcasting industry in the US based on the needs identi-
ed by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA). Separate questionnaires
developed for the sand casting, die casting and investment casting
suppliers are mailed to the 283 foundries listed with the Ameri-
can Foundrymens Society (AFS) foundry database. The researchers
received 39 completed surveys which are used to develop guide-
lines and perform further analysis to identify relationships between
variables for the DoD and DLA.
3. Research method
Improving exibility is vital to casting SMEs success because a
time consuming changeover of dies as well as excessive manual
handling of parts, is expensive: it could demand long production
runs to justify its cost and this in turn leads to excess inventory and
445
slow response to customer demand. In the present market envi-
ronment, foundry companies are looking for exibility to enable
shorter manufacturing lead times that could meet the ever chang-
ing demands of the customers. But for this, it is necessary to have
economic production of which is possible only if the plant automa-
tion is well managed because the large setup and handling times in
foundries not only increase the in-process waste but also adds to
the inability to respond quickly to customer needs.
In general, manufacturing automation is considered a problem
for production personnel only, as its true that the shop oor is
the place where the manufacturing problems can be seen. Many
other areas can have an impact on the feasibility of automation,
for example lean technologies such as poka-yoke. The presented
work shows the following two step approach to reducing non-value
adding activities, particularly for foundry automation:
Technical guidelines for manufacturing automation
Poka-yoke capabilities to sustain the quality of casted parts pro-
duced
The presented study will show that the role of the automation
designer is indispensible. He plays an important role in inuencing
the exibility in batch production foundry environment, inuenc-
ing quick changeovers, before they are actually performed. He is
responsible for all the technical aspects of automation since these
are determined by the concept and setup of the machine. The
awareness of the importance of having foundry automation guide-
lines can help a manufacturing engineer to build an automation
friendly equipment setup. This work has highlighted this approach
as design for exible foundry automation (DFFFA).
A set of technical guidelines are given which might prove use-
ful to be a good practice while planning an automation system.
These rules are suggested from a technical point of view in line
with Shingos poka-yoke technique. These are aimed to reduce the
enable exibility elements such as quick changeovers and improve
part quality compliance.
In the presented work, we have used a living lab approach, for
identifying and understanding the different areas for application
of exible automation in a real world context with the consortium
lead users. Living labs started to emerge in the beginning of 2000
and the concept has since grown. A precondition in living lab activ-
ities is that they are used in a real-world context. A living lab could
be understood as an environment of publicprivate partnerships in
which the stakeholders get together to stimulate and challenge the
research and development, by actively taking part in the innovation
process. The approach is similar to open source methodologies, e.g.,
open innovation, involving stakeholders and crowdsourcing.
The automated living lab test cell was installed directly at one
of the participating foundries. Followed by the described technol-
ogy demonstration, discussions have resulted in rst ideas and
feedback for improvement. In parallel, several other processes and
experimentations were identied and prepared for real life exper-
imentation. During the above living lab process, constant feedback
for improvement was collected and transformed into a requirement
list for the technology providers.
The automation solutions were implemented over a period of
20 months. The solution implementation in only two of the nine
foundries has been currently disclosed due to proprietary nature
of the information at present. These two case studies demonstrate
the implementation of the needs identied by the consortium. The
living labs reference used in the context of this research, is in the
context of industrial implementation to demonstrate the use of the
research work. This ts well with the dual role we had in this work
from the research university standpoint. Our responsibility was to
emphasize the interaction between theory and practice, involve
many stakeholders with distinct role relevant in the situation and
446 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454
use the industrial facilities to demonstrate the application of the
exible manufacturing concept and improve SME capabilities.
4. Automation in metalcasting
It is becoming increasingly evident over the past few years that
one of the major possible ways to improve the production rate and
reduce labor costs is to automate the process of handling of parts
to cope with varying production rates. The above view is consis-
tent with the literature and is justied because of the following
observations
A review of the current manufacturing processes in most SME
industries reveals that over 65% of the total manufacturing time
is spent in manual handling of the material by human operators.
It was also found that the cost of manufacturing a product is
roughly between 30% and 40% of total manufacturing cost, which
increases with increased labor cost.
Fig. 1 shows the evolution of the price of a particular industrial
robot in the average and annual wages for a Norwegian indus-
trial worker demonstrated for a 40-year period. As the price of the
industrial robot has increased over the years, so have the person-
nel wages. The curve shows that an industrial robot is becoming
relatively cheaper. In 1976, an industrial robot purchase cost cor-
responded to 8-years of personnel labor for the investment to be
paid back. This number was reduced to four years in 1986, and one
year in the present day scenario. Most modern production tech-
niques are in general characterized by such a development, and
this is not just limited to robotics.
The robot is advantageous and often necessary in applica-
tions that are dull, dirty or dangerous for humans. Traditionally,
industrial robots (above 1 million operational installations world-
wide, IFR 2009) are used to replace human labor in manufacturing
such that repeatability, quality and accuracy is increased in
Fig. 1. Price development for industrial robot Cincinnati Milacron T 3 relative the cost of an employee executed by Norwegian industrial workers on average.
Extended from Lien [33].
manufacturing and assembly operations like painting, cutting,
welding, etc. These applications comprise only a minor part of the
industrial work where robots can be utilized, especially considering
the variety of applications and the number of SMEs.
5. Flexible manufacturing
The analysis of the literature regarding the topic of manufactur-
ing exibility, in high volume production environments, highlights
the presence of four main categories of scientic works. The publi-
cations in the rst group deal with the analysis of the interpretation
of manufacturing exibility and their relationships with manufac-
turing problems. A key contribution in this area was presented
by Upton, who dened exibility as the ability to change mini-
mizing penalty with time. The second group of publications deal
with classication of existing exibility forms through concep-
tual frameworks. An early denition of exibility was provided by
Gupta [10] who credited Mascarenhas as having dened exibil-
ity. The third category focuses on the development of approaches
and models, both qualitative and quantitative, to support the sys-
tem design while considering the given system exibility forms.
Koren [14] studied the relationship between the level of embedded
system exibility and the system performance. The fourth group
of research aims at systemizing the higher number of exibility
denitions related to the real implementation of various forms of
exibility in a manufacturing system.
The key feature distinguishing exible manufacturing systems
from dedicated manufacturing systems is, in fact, their exibil-
ity. Yet, there is no agreement to date on the precise denition
of exibility. Literature conrms the difculty in the develop-
ment of objective measures for exibility, for example, because
of its property of multidimensionality. Gupta et al. [10] proposed
a method to evaluate value of exibility based on time scale
decomposition of short, medium and long term changes; to simply
the problem to measuring the value of exibility. Investments in
 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454 447

exible manufacturing scenarios have been difcult to justify due

to lack of techniques to quantify exibility. Wadhwa [29] proposed
a methodical concept utilizing real options to evaluate exible
foundry batch manufacturing system. Pyoun et al. [16] suggested a
method for quantifying exibility. separately analyzed exibility in
mass manufacturing systems from a users and manufacturers point
of view by classifying exibility into 11 and 4 elements respec-
tively, applied to a transmission assembly scenario. Although the
work is about analyzing exibility separately from a systems and
users point of view, however one can observe that these views can
vary widely between industries. Foundry industry, for example,
has signicant challenges in the current regulatory and political
environment with developing an economical sustainable business
model. Nevertheless, the approach could prove useful in batch
manufacturing scenarios.
The work by Fernandes et al. [7] investigates the decisions about
equipment choice along with the impact of product mix distribu-
tion between standard and customized; and is based on the product
mix denition of Berry and Cooper. Wang et al. [31] proposed
a scalability planning methodology by introducing a design-for-
scalability method to address the recongurability issue to meet
the changing demand of the customer. They proposed a genetic
algorithm heuristic to solve the line balancing optimization prob-
lem. The main issue in a foundry exible manufacturing system
is however, the issue of time involved in equipment changeover,
which needs to be addressed to enable efcient batch production in
a metalcasting environment [30]. The die changeover setup process Fig. 2. (a) Flexibility forms and (b) importance v/s difculty of implementation of
depends on the technical aspect of the foundry system, organiza- exibility forms.
tion of work content, and to a great degree to the method to perform
the changeover. The setup time affecting the foundry changeover
the internal processes, and uncertainty and changes in the envi-
exibility also depends on the technique of the machine itself,
ronment. Such factors have affected manufacturing companies for
which in-turn depends on the given cast product specications.
a long time, but the inuence of them has escalated during the
As conrmed from an extensive literature review, the exibility
past 20 years as a result of advances in manufacturing technol-
denitions presented could have different interpretations in dif-
ogy, and demand for mass customization. Nevertheless, an attempt
ferent organizational contexts. The following example illustrates
has been made to identify the suitability of essential spheres of
how a promising exibility form can lead to different results. When
manufacturing exibility to a foundry set-up.
using changeover to evaluate the system exibility different com-
Changeover exibility. This is dened as the number of different
panies dened its components of product modularity, volume and
products being produced concurrently over time and is a result of
product mix, differently according to their individual manufactur-
uncertainty as to the length of product life cycles [9]. An alternative
ing environments (sand casting, aluminum die casting, etc.), and
approach suggested by Gustavsson [11] is to calculate the ratio of
associated it differently with different levels of difculties in imple-
the equipment investment relevant for the next product to that of
mentation. This issue was discussed in detail with the alliance
the total investment.
partners. It was observed that the lead company sometimes forces
Fig. 3 shows an aluminum foundry process that was evaluated
the inclusions of particular exibility forms already being used
by breaking the equipment into ve major systems. Those systems
internally in their company. This issue had to be handled with care.
are the core machines, the castlines, the nish lines, the heat treat
On one hand, these forms are tested and familiar. On the other hand,
cells and the pre-machining line. Though each of these areas may
including all options in the proposed exibility implementation
include several machines or sub-systems, they will be evaluated as
proposal, could lead to an excessive number of choices.
a department, based on the input and output information available
In the next step, the number and denition exibility forms
from the plant. Fig. 3 shows the equipment layout and Table 1 shows
was rened. The nine companies scored, using ve point Likert
the machine assignment, where b1, . . ., b6 denotes the in-process
scales, the exibility forms against two dimensions: importance
buffers.
of the exibility form in an SME context, and difculty in imple-
From the structural model, we put the model into the aggre-
menting it in a manufacturing facility. The importance scale ranged
gation machines following the aggregation algorithm for parallel
from not important (1) to highly important (5) and the difculty
machines and serial machines. Putting all the factors together, the
scale ranges from easily implementable to difcult to implement
nal structural model of the entire system was simplied as a 4
(5). This procedure helped in identifying the exibility forms that
machine 3 buffer serial line to conduct throughput and bottleneck
(description in Section 3) relevant to manufacturing SMEs. Fig. 2
shows the results that came out of this procedure.

5.1. Dening exibility in a manufacturing context

In recent years, exibility has attracted signicant attention

from both SME industry and academia due to the external factors
resulting from varying customer demands and increasing competi-
tion. Changing operating conditions are forcing rms to be exible
in terms of handling variations in demand, product variations in Fig. 3. Foundry layout structural model.
448 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454
Table 1
Machine number assignments for the system structural model.
m1 Core machine 1
m2 Core machine 2
m3 Core machine 3
m4 Castline 1
m5 Castline 2
m6 Castline 3
m7 Finish line 1
m8 Finish line 2
m9 Finish line 3
m10 Heart treat cell 1
m11 Heart treat cell 2
m12 Pre-machining
analysis on the system, acting as an input to quick changeovers for
batch production parts.
Product modularity exibility. The modular product design with
component modularity helps to leverage product variations and use
of common components across product families. Modular product
conguration can reduce the variety of components while offering
a wide range of products. Modular exibility helps in reducing the
lead-time of producing new products and allows combining stan-
dardized modules in a variety of ways to create unique nished
products.
The components embedded within a certain allowable range
of variation provide great exibility in composing the nal prod-
ucts. The standardized interface of components in modular product
design enables effective coordination of development in mod-
ular organization structures. In the context of the described
living lab setup, the part modularity could assist in developing
pre-programmed gripping congurations leading to an 100% auto-
mated factory.
Product mix exibility. Product exibility relates to the ability of
the system to cope with changes products to be processed by the
system. Generally, the productivity tends to decline with increas-
ing job exibility [3]. Most of the emphasis on achieving exibility
in manufacturing systems has been related to product exibility.
Essentially this can be achieved either at the machine level or at
the system level. At the foundry machine automation level, prod-
uct exibility could be achieved by increasing the capabilities of the
robot by using ATC (automatic tool changer) to handle multiple part
families. The robot could be made more versatile, more complex,
and is provided with more sophisticated controls.
Alternatively, job exibility can be achieved at the system level
by distributing the required capability among a variety of machines
or work stations, each of which would then be specialized to cer-
tain processing tasks. As a result, this introduces the requirement
to move jobs between machines in order for all important opera-
tions to be performed and so a materials handling system such as
material handling systems and conveyors must be provided [3].
Plant layout exibility. Flexibility in facilities design literature is
often dened as the capability of a layout to react to disturbances
caused by future change. Four areas that can affect a shop layout
are changes in product mix, changes in product volume, changes in
the process, and changes in raw materials used in producing these
products. Thus, the layout exibility contributes to mix and part
mix, volume, process, and material and raw material exibilities.
Design of production plant is related to spatial arrangements
of machines and robots, mobile robot handling devices, material-
product storage areas, and automated guided vehicles. Total
estimated annual material handling costs for a particular design
are used provide a quantitative measure of a design exibility.
Machine exibility. Machine exibility refers to the ease of mak-
ing the changes required to produce a given set of part types
[1,2,27].
In foundry automation context, the term machine refers could
refer to assembly robot.
The machine level provides the basic framework for exibility.
In other words, machine exibility is necessary for other exibili-
ties. Machine exibility allows for:
Lower batch sizes and resulting savings in inventory costs
Higher machine utilizations [12]
Production of complex parts
Shorter lead times for new product introductions [5]
Better product quality realizations in the face of random varia-
tions in input quality [19,25]
Achieving machine exibility
Electronic and software development might help to create
machine exibility in a cost-efcient way. The rst aspect of
machine exibility can be measured by the number of different
operations that a machine can perform without requiring more
than a specied amount of effort [19]. The second aspect of machine
exibility may be measured in terms of time and/or cost required
in switching from one operation to another [30].
Part handling exibility. Flexibility of a material handling system
is its ability to move different part types efciently for proper posi-
tioning and processing through the manufacturing facility it serves.
The denition covers loading and unloading of parts, transporting
them from machine to machine, and eventually storing them under
varying conditions of the manufacturing facility. This denition is
consistent with the discussion in Stecke and Browne [2] and Chat-
terjee et al. [6]. Kusiak and Chatterjee et al. dene the ability of
the material handling system in terms of physical location of each
group of machines. They also dene linkages between each pair of
groups and between each pair of machines within each group, and
the times for every possible move between machines. From these,
it is possible to dene the set of all possible material paths that can
be supported in the factory.
Better layouts, more space, cleaner environment, better
ergonomics, and the use of autonomous work groups improve
material handling exibility in assembly environments [13].
Parallel-assembly arrangements allow an assembler not to be
impeded by a person who might be slower or experiencing a prob-
lem. Changes such as local testing and inspection in the assembly
process increase the cycle time. These changes may considerably
expand the required skills of assemblers, as they must learn to test,
inspect, adjust, and repair products, as well as to assemble them.
Various manual and motor-propelled jigs and xtures rotate
parts and assemblies through several axes and adjust to the needs
of a range of assemblers. Pallet xture exibility determines the
degree of freedom available to part loading schedules [15]. This
exibility also has to be taken into account when dealing with
buffer size, which is the ability to accommodate different parts of
different shapes and sizes, and the readjustment of paths in case of
expansion.
Production exibility. Production exibility is the universe of part
types that a manufacturing system can produce without adding
major capital equipment. Minor resources such as new tools may
be allowed in order to dene the relevant universe. In contrast
with product exibility, note that production exibility may allow
considerable setups, but not major capital equipment. In a way,
production exibility denes the set of existing and potential parts
from which the candidate parts can be drawn as the new parts
considered in the denition of product exibility [1,2,19,27].
Slack [22] emphasized the importance of labor exibility in
obtaining production exibility. He also surmised that product ex-
ibility is a response exibility, whereas production exibility is
a range exibility. This denition is similar to those proposed by
Browne et al. [2].
 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454
Production exibility allows the rm to compete in a market
where new products are frequently demanded. Production exibil-
ity minimizes the implementation time for new products or major
modications of existing products [5]. On the operational level, it
permits an increase of part families and allows the rm to diversify
its risk. As Browne et al. [2], and Chatterjee et al. [6] imply, pro-
duction exibility depends on the variety and the versatility of the
machines that are available, the exibility of the material handling
system, and the factorys information and control system.
If a exible material handling system is in place, in terms of
part types, production exibility is more than the sum of the parts
that each individual machine can make. Production exibility is
related to the properties of the transportation system, warehousing
system, interfacing system, distributed data bases, systems control,
and software modularity.
An open communication system as well as the use of a com-
mon communication protocol will help to increase production
exibility.
Operation exibility. Operation exibility is a property of the
part, and means that the part can be produced with alternate pro-
cess plans, where a process plan means a sequence of operations
required to produce the part. A process will be considered to have
operation exibility if parts that are being produced in the system
possess operation exibility and if the material handling system is
able to deliver parts to machines in different possible orders. The
denition of the operation exibility of a process is consistent with
Browne et al. [2] and Chatterjee et al. [6].
Operation exibility of parts contributes to various system ex-
ibilities, especially routing exibility. Additionally, it allows for
easier scheduling of parts in real time [2] and increases machine
availability and utilization, especially when machines are unreli-
able. Parts that are standardized or modular [11] are likely to exhibit
operation exibility. The number of different processing plans for
its fabrication can measure operation exibility of a part [16].
Response exibility. Response exibility is dened as the ease of
moving from one manufacturing system conguration to another,
within the existing capability and capacity envelope [21].
Part routing exibility. Routing exibility refers to the dynamic
assignment of parts to machinesthat is, the rerouting of a given
part if a machine used in its manufacture is incapacitated [8]. Rout-
ing exibility also delivers the ability to handle breakdowns and to
continue producing a given set of part types [1,2,4].
Another denition of routing exibility of a manufacturing
system is its ability to produce a part by alternate routes (or paths)
through the system. Alternate routes may use different machines,
different operations, or different sequences of operations. Typi-
cally, these different machines (e.g., lathe and milling machines or
two brands of grinders) are those capable of essentially the same
processes.
The above analyzed exibility parameters could be incorpo-
rated in an integrated knowledge framework to support exible
manufacturing decision support. The need for integration of the
exibility aspects derive from the viewpoint of manufacturing
SMEs, who would want a view on manufacturing and management
of product lifecycle to be as complete as possible. Moreover, it
could serve as a guidance to handle the most critical exibility
issues occurring within a system problem. For example, starting
from the product evolution standpoint, it is possible to take
decisions on, e.g., which degree of exibility to acquire to best
meet the production needs or opt for more dedicated manufac-
turing solutions. Regarding the integration of information, Kimura
proposed a framework for product and process from a virtual
manufacturing viewpoint. Thibault et al. presented Ontoforge to
support the integrated design in forging processes. Bernard et al.
proposed a meta model structure to link the function to external
conditions. The framework to manage manufacturing information
449
should be able to support the user in the production modeling
activity, feeding the decision support tools with the required
data, considering exibility as a requirement in the knowledge
management framework, i.e., the model must be adaptable in
order to describe many different production system scenarios,
process and product exibilities. Integrating exibility measures
which serve as an input back to the production system could help
the SME to operate in a Just-In-Time (JIT) environment [32].
6. Living lab setup and use case
6.1. Case study one: exible robot part handling in an iron
foundry
Preferring to remain anonymous, the iron casting is a manufac-
turer of home heating ovens. The company faces seasonal customer
demand patterns, and it produces eight series of ovens, with four
variants each. Two series have special coating processes after the
individual assembly parts are casted, and have special handling
requirements.
The company wanted to look into automating the manu-
facturing operations targeting at reducing the manual handling
operations by automating the CNC machining for the parts with
a number of machining operations (>30/part) and heavy weight
(Fig. 4). A description of the automation cell is provided below.
The implemented automation system consists of seven mod-
ules: (i) the vision module (Tordivel Scorpion), (ii) the robot module
(ABB 6400), (iii) the robot end effecter part handling module, (iv)
the automated storage lift, and (v) the CNC machine (CinCh-30S).
(vi) The RFID tags with (vii) part family xtures (Figs. 5 and 6).
When there is an order from ERP system to meet a request down-
stream, the HMI requests the bin selection from the storage, and the
robot waits for the signal notifying that the bin is in place under the
vision system, and noties the camera via TCP/IP (through PLC), to
take the picture. The position and orientation of the part/xture is
transferred to the robot via the PLC, which then proceeds to orient
the gripper accordingly to transfer the part on the CNC xture.
6.2. The robot grippers: three industrial versions
Handling the parts once they arrive at the machine is also
important. Implementing machine exibility with the use of robots
with recongurable grippers and intelligent interfaces (exible
workspace, vision system, etc.), automatic tool changers and mul-
tiaxis robots can help enhance material handling exibility at the
most affordable price. Fig. 6 shows a exible laboratory prototype
tested to handle the parts [28] and Figs. 79 show the three imple-
mented designs at the foundry.
The rst version of gripper developed is shown in Fig. 7. This
gripper works well in lifting small at parts, the weight ranging
from 2 to 5 kg. The gripper consist of an off-the-shelf at elec-
tromagnet 60 mm, attached to the robot end via a pneumatic
cylinder (Festo, DFM-20-40-B-PPV-A-GF, pmax = 10 bar). Gripper I is
limited in its capabilities when handling complex parts with special
contours. Hence there was a need to develop a specialized electro-
magnet to handle the parts at the foundry; and the development
and results of the use of the special magnet is currently proprietary
information.
The motivation for the version ii design was to have a exi-
ble gripper that could handle parts of size range 200320 mm. The
length of the arms is 260 mm (including 40 mm height of 80 mm
magnet) with a 3 compliance at the joint. Triangular workspace
ranges from 350 to 500 mm. Version II weighs 25 kg and has a pneu-
matic cylinder with stroke length 30 mm (Rexroth 63 H 30, 0822
010 875) on the top center, and range for the three arms is 100 mm
using linear step motor (Haydon Switch and instrument, E57 H4A,
3.25 A).
450 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454

Fig. 4. Metalcasting process.

6.2.1. Limitations
Stepper motor does not allow for position control for mag-
net. The range of parts that the gripper can handle is limited. The
pneumatic cylinder holding the electromagnets causes problems in
picking curved parts (electromagnet gripper ends do not touch the
part completely), for example, if the part movement due to moving
conveyor belt vibration or the part orientation.
The version iii gripper weighs 20 kg has a stroke length of
150 mm on the three sides of the gripper. The electromagnets move
over a distance of 40 mm and are attached via a pneumatic cylinder
(Festo) to the upper rails. Three servo motors 24 V (Faulhaber) each,
are used for the movement on the rails. The voltage used for the
electromagnet is 24 V DC, with a total power consumption of 12 W
at still position, and 84 W at operating condition. The two main dif-
ference between the versions II and III is the workspace covered by Fig. 6. Testing the Universal Passive Gripper with the foundry parts.
the electromagnets and the use of servo motors to overcome the
limitations of stepper motor use.
This version has the advantage that the speed of movement was vision techniques like edge detection are not efcient for casted
4 times faster than the version II because of the use of servo motors. parts which have ash on the edges and hence varying outer dimen-
Accuracy is also better and faster for the servo motor. sions. The markers could only be placed on one side of the part, as
The gripper was able to pick more parts than version II, as the the other side needs to be used for aesthetic reasons in product
magnets are able to move closer in the center handle smaller parts. assembly. Additionally, the texture of the part varies because of
The three versions of grippers were designed to assist in quick varying molten metal cooling rates and during change of material
changeovers with an automatic tool changer, to handle the product
mix at the iron foundry. The installed automation cell works with-
out human intervention. There are some issues that could interrupt
the continuous operation. For example, the company suggested the
use of markers (Fig. 10) to aid in accurate estimate of the parts 3D
orientation in the loading bin. Markers were necessary because 3D

Fig. 7. Version I gripper principle and prototype.

Fig. 5. The automated cell with the robot, CNC machine, the automatic storage lift
and the vision system. Fig. 8. Version II gripper principle (a) and prototype (b).
 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454
Fig. 9. Version III gripper workspace principle (a) and prototype (b).
Fig. 10. Markers casted on the part. (For interpretation of the references to color in
the text, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
for different production batches (variation in molten metal shades
within a batch is less than between two batches).
The part orientation is recognized by the vision system when
the markers are on top, but if the parts are randomly mixed in
the incoming bin, the vision system slows the production by not
being able to identify the part. Other issues that could be a problem
include a molding failure to the markers, or if the part has a sur-
face defect due to differential cooling of the casting. If any of these
events occur, the container is marked as error and stored back in
the lift, and a new one is pulled from the rack; operator can take
care of the issue when he returns back to the automated cell.
6.3. Case study two: modular concept for part handling and
xture exibility in aluminum foundry
Case study two is an aluminum foundry which wanted to ana-
lyze how and where the company could use modular components
Fig. 11. Sand cores in xtures.
451
for handling automation. The company wanted to look into the
design for transport pallets and overhead conveyors for the inter-
nal transport of castings which required signicant investment and
maintenance costs as they were specially tailored for each new
product. During production, parts are transported around the fac-
tory on pallets that are attached to different assembly lines. In order
for robotic grippers to intervene parts it is important that they are
positioned securely. Moreover, handling sand cores requires addi-
tional constraints to ensure it should not be worn or cracked during
transport.
Fig. 10 shows the xture pins holding the sand core (yellow) in
place. These blocks are adapted to sand core shapes to ensure that
the sand core, both have great enough rest area and that it will be
xed properly with the pallet (Fig. 11).
Various manual and motor-propelled jigs and xtures rotate
parts and assemblies through several axes and adjust to the needs
of a range of assemblers. Pallet xture exibility determines the
degree of freedom available to part loading schedules. This exi-
bility also has to be taken into account when dealing with buffer
size, which is the ability to accommodate different parts of dif-
ferent shapes and sizes, and the readjustment of paths in case of
expansion. The solutions suggested below were based on modular
principles enabling ease of production, and the identied need for
short changeover time, reuse of components and reducing the need
to adjust the pallet for exible handling of new component designs.
Considering the above requirements one of the four imple-
mented modular solutions for handling aluminum parts and sand
cores are shown in Figs. 12 and 13. The same standard base plate
is used to transport sand cores and aluminum parts. The alu-
minum parts are supported by three exible points. Three arms
are adjustable in the xy- and z-direction ensures that all products
within a product family (swing arms in this case) can make this pal-
let. The implementation presents an integrated solution in which
no part must be replaced when the pallet is to be converted. Alu-
minum part location pins are adjustable in height direction (z) by a
tube to move freely inside another, the same applies to the longi-
tudinal direction (x). The arms can also be turned around the z-axis
of the tubes can be rotated independently. When arms are prop-
erly adjusted in all directions, they must be xed in this position
(Fig. 14).
The modular part handling solutions offer routing exibility that
the aluminum foundry desired.
6.3.1. Limitation of the case studies
There are very few foundries that have raw material exibil-
ity and that can run iron, steel and aluminum. Once a foundry is
operating on one of these metals, the casting nishing system is
quite different for each. Casting expertise required to produce X-
ray quality aluminum castings for automotive is much higher than
casting iron.
452 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454

Fig. 12. Locating pin principle for handling aluminum parts.

Fig. 15. (a) Markers as seen on the part under normal lighting. (b) Screen shot from
the vision system showing the reection issues and disappearing lines at high angle
tilting, but the circles are still visible.

Fig. 15b shows that the circular markers have always a certain
part recognizable by the vision system under light, whereas the
straight line markers are almost disappearing.

Fig. 13. Aluminum parts xture on standard base plate.

7.2. System interface issues

Every component in the implemented automation cell has its

7. Challenges in implementing manufacturing exibility in own preferred communication protocols and standards. For exam-
foundries ple, the Faulhaber servos inside the griper can only use CAN-bus, so
one needed a PROFIBUS to CAN-bus gateway. As a result of this one
Fundamental research and follow up experimental studies is a needed to set up CAN bus to I/O modules inside the gripper. Or one
benecial way to approach conceptual challenges our society is would have two separate BUS lines into the gripper. The key issue
facing in order to develop and incorporate automation and techno-
logical solutions to sustain high level of standards in the future. It
is essential that the requirements of the system govern the choices
and the decisions made during the system design. The importance
and adoption of industrial standards such as STEP and PLCS as a
reference to develop the manufacturing process framework. The
following array of automation challenges were identied during
the analysis and implementation of automated solutions working
with the consortia.

7.1. The vision system challenges: picking from conveyor v/s bin
picking

The functionality of the vision module is to perform object

recognition of a 3D part in space and locate the coordinates. Mark-
ers (Fig. 15a) were casted to aid in accurate estimate of the parts
orientation for the purposes of pick and place operation from a con-
Fig. 16. Clamping attached to the base of the CNC milling machine. The RFID tags
veyor belt and the stationary bin. The iron foundry production parts ensure that the correct xture is loaded and thus requesting the appropriate G code.
were at in nature with a dimensions varying between 200 mm2
and 600 mm2 and thickness between 5 and 8 mm. Picking from a
conveyor belt was conveniently implemented for automation. But,
when parts are together in a random order in a bin, there was a
reection issue with the straight line markers. The straight line
markers were discovered to have a limitation of reection with
a tilt angle greater than 30 for iron castings.

Fig. 17. Fixture markers for vision recognition and locators corresponding to the
Fig. 14. Sand cores located on the standard base plate. xture rotation and sliding locators.
 R.S. Wadhwa / Journal of Manufacturing Systems 31 (2012) 444454
Fig. 18. Ensuring poka-yoke for vision system identication.
in communication between systems is that the protocol sometimes
differs a little from the documentation.
8. Technical guidelines for exible automation
The basic philosophy for a foundry automation engineer should
be that the automation of manual tasks to enable exibility should
be as easy as possible. Based on the living lab experience, following
are some guidelines to enable a exible foundry automation system
helping in reducing non value adding activities:
The automation cell for major foundry processes, i.e., machin-
ing ash, transferring parts, etc. should enable minimum human
intervention.
Scrap handling operation caused due to defects like rat tails,
hot tear in aluminum casting, and non homogenous mix in iron
casting should be integrated as an automated activity whenever
possible.
Eliminate in-process automation equipment adjustments by
using markers for vision systems in iron foundry operations.
Provide sliding locators to account for part size variations due
to varied cooling rates and thus assisting in ash removal dur-
ing automated CNC milling. Enable ofine checking of parts by
improving the quality of automation settings in the cell. Use servo
motors for faster motion and better control.
Enable checks for ensuring fool-proong the automation enablers
such as automated selection and loading of the correct xture
for foundry parts ensuring the use of industrial communication
standards for CNC and RFID enabled automation.
Design machine feeders based on modular design principles.
The use of pneumatic or electric actuators is recommended in a
foundry environment, as compared to hydraulic driven ones.
Complex die designs require specialized tters for setup and
changeover. Consider making it as simple as possible.
Enforce law of gravity while designing part feeders for assembly.
Apply principle of standardization for work procedure while
designing automation cells.
9. Poka yoke principles
Poka-yoke, a term coined by Shingo in Japan in 1960s, implies
mistake or error-proong. In a foundry automation context this
could mean ensuring proper conditions before an automation pro-
cess proceeds further. Ideally, poka-yoke should be considered
during the development of automation process methodologies
to maximize opportunities for error proong. Once the process
is selected, mistake proong opportunities are more limited or
453
require process modication and increase implementation costs
(Figs. 1618).
10. Conclusions
In recent years, exibility has attracted signicant attention
from both SME industry and academia due to the external factors
resulting from varying customer demands and increasing competi-
tion. Changing operating conditions are forcing rms to be exible
in terms of handling variations in demand, product variations in
the internal processes, and uncertainty and changes in the envi-
ronment. Such factors have affected manufacturing companies for
a long time, but the inuence of them has escalated during the past
20 years as a result of advances in manufacturing technology, and
demand for mass customization. Collaborative engineering is the
preferred mode of operation especially for SMEs that provide spe-
cialized one of a kind product and services to demanding clients. In
the present competitive manufacturing environment, exible con-
guration of a manufacturing system could help fullling the ever
changing demands of the customers. Metalcasting industries work
in lot sizes for economical production and automation is neces-
sary for efcient changeovers between the lot sizes and for the part
handling areas; to enhance the ability to respond quickly to the
changing customer needs.
This paper presented a living lab case study and some ex-
ible automation challenges of foundry SMEs. The development
and evaluation of robust analytical models dening technological-
machine and plant level exibility suitable to the foundry SME
environment constitutes the central objective for the future phases
of the project.
Acknowledgments
Financial support from the AutoCast Foundry Consortium and
the Norwegian Research Council is gratefully acknowledged.
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