Process and System Improvement in Plywood Products Manufacturing

该项目将与西雅图产品公司合作进行，a蒙特利尔从事胶合板产品制造的中小型企业。西雅特生产高品质的模压胶合板座椅组件，并为当地居民提供稳定的就业机会，其中许多人是不同文化和其他背景的新移民。生产计划和调度、质量控制和改进、物料处理和物流优化是充分发挥这类行业生产系统潜力的科学方法。该合作伙伴组织已实施单元制造框架，以提高生产力和质量。拟议的项目是制定有效的数据和信息管理方法、优化生产调度、优化库存管理和先进的生产程序，以保证质量。由于生产系统同时使用自动化机器和手动操作，因此在协调和优化这两种操作方面存在研究挑战。研究的结果将是基于科学方法的优化解决方案，这些方法是可行的和可实施的，最终导致高产品质量，最佳物料流和库存水平，以及减少劳动力波动，使SEATOBE在加拿大工业的这个非常进口的部门更具竞争力。进行这项研究的学生有不同的研究和文化背景，并将接受培训，以获得在真实的生产系统中进行研究的经验。这些经验将使他们更好地准备解决先进和灵活的制造系统中具有挑战性的实际问题。

The project will be conducted in collaboration with SEATPLY Products Inc., a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) in plywood products manufacturing in Montreal. SEATPLY produces high quality molded plywood seating components and provides stable job opportunities to local population, many of them are new immigrants of diverse cultural and other backgrounds. Production planning and scheduling, quality control and improvement, material handling and material flow optimization are the scientific methods to achieve full potential of the production system in this type of industry. The partner organization has implemented cellular manufacturing framework for productivity and quality improvement. The proposed project is to develop effective methods for data and information management, optimal production scheduling, optimal inventory management and advanced production process for quality assurance. Since the production system uses both automated machines and manual operations, it creates research challenges in coordinating and optimizing both types of operations. The outcome of the research will be optimized solutions based on scientific methods which are feasible and implementable and ultimately lead to high product quality, optimal material flows and inventory levels, as well as reduced workforce fluctuations making SEATPLY more competitive in this very imported sector of Canadian industry. The students conducting this research have diverse research and culture backgrounds and will be trained to gain experiences in conducting research in a real production system. Such experiences will make them much better prepared to solving challenging practical problems in advanced and flexible manufacturing systems.