ME2020 Manufacturing Engineering I

Overview of Manufacturing Engineering in Present Context

Manufacturing process
Simplest definition for manufacturing process can be given as “Manufacturing is a process of converting
raw material in to products”. In other definition, “Manufacturing process is the process of creating value
by applying useful, mental or physical labour, or both”. Ex: Manufacturing a car body panels by metal
stamping. Here the manufacturing process is “Metal Stamping”. The term “Manufacturing” implies,
designing of the product, selection of raw material, and the sequence of processes which are to be used to
manufacture the product.

Raw
Products
material

These “Manufactured Products” or Manufactured Goods can be categorized in to two groups.

Consumer goods
Products which are used by the general public or consumer are
known as Consumer Goods.
Ex:- Mobile phones, Cars
Manufactured
Goods Producer goods
Products or goods, which are used to produce consumer
goods, are known as Producer goods.
Ex:- Plastic pellets used to make mobile phone housing, Steel
sheets used to form car body.

Four essentials of a manufacturing process

For a given manufacturing process, there are four essentials. There should be material to process, a tool
(machine) to do the processing, a method to follow, and finally a man (an operator) to carry out the
process.

Manufacturing
process

Material Machine Method Man

Manufacturing system
A manufacturing system is defined as “A collection of manufacturing processes”. Ex: Car manufacturing
plant. Inside the car manufacturing plant there operates numerous manufacturing processes to complete
the product, i.e. Car.

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Traditional approach of product manufacturing

Designing Planning for Production Production

Traditional approach to manufacture a product involves three basic steps. First is the design phase, where
the original concept is developed, prototype is made, design is verified, revised if needed, and finally the
production drawings are produced. Second phase is the planning for production. Material specification,
process selection, tool selection/design and construction, etc are done during this stage. Finally the actual
production started.

Customers’ expectations of a product

 Price (Cost) Low
 Functionality Ability to perform the intended function/s
 QualityHigh
 AppearanceGood
 ReliabilityHigh
 Availability Available when ever required

In order to capture the market, anything product made should meet the above conditions. All the above
traits have influence over the others. As an example, attempt to increase the quality of the product would
ultimately cause increase in the total cost and hence the selling price. In view of a manufacturing
engineer, those customer expectations are the basic constrains for manufacturing. He/she has to keep the
manufacturing cost as low as possible while obtaining, optimum functionality, quality, reliability, and
producing the products on time.

Cost of production

% of Product selling price % of total manufacturing cost

Direct
labour cost
12%
Profit
20%

Manufactu Indirect
ring cost labour cost
Marketing, 40% Material
26%
sales & cost
administra 50%
tion cost
25% Engineerin M/c
g cost depreciatio
15% n, energy
cost
12%
Generally manufacturing cost of product can be around 40% of its selling price. Out of the total
manufacturing cost 50% is the material cost of the product. According to above two charts, 68.75% of
total expenditure is for people. (De Garmo, Balck, & Kohser, 2005)

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Trends in manufacturing
Due to the immense market competition, manufacturing companies are looking for every possible way to
reduce the overall cost per unit product. The most viable cost reduction method is to minimise the cost of
manufacturing. 50% of the manufacturing cost is the material cost, and material cost reduction is heavily
concerned. Clearly reduction in material wastage would reduce material cost, and it will eliminate
unnecessary material processing. Avoiding unnecessary material processing which ultimately reduce
overall cost by saving the resources taken to material processing. “Lean Manufacturing” is one of the
concepts widely followed by the manufacturing industries. “Just-In-Time” (JIT) is another process
management techniques used in the industries.

Another marketing technique used is the making of variations of a product. Variations of colour, features,
functionalities, quality, etc are introduced to the market to widen the target consumer group. Making
products in modular form is also been adopted, enabling more customised products and hence more
market. This has made the production quantity of an individual product variety smaller, making it more
challenging for the manufacturing engineer.

Due to the fast moving market, it is now critical to reduce the time taken to make a “Concept” in to the
“Final Product”. The highly dynamic market and rapidly developing technology has imposed a shorter
life time for products. Earlier mostly it was expected for a product to be last for years if not for decades.
But at present, product life time may be couple of months, probably because it could be replaced a new
product with better technology even before its anticipated life. Therefore it is clear that manufacturer
cannot spend months or years to bring the product to the market. Adaptation of concepts like “Concurrent
Engineering” has minimised time taken for product realisation. Therefore present manufacturing systems
must be capable of start production with in short time period, complete production with in short time
period, and respond to design changes immediately.

Classification of basic manufacturing processes

 Casting and Moulding processes  Finishing processes (Surface treatments)
 Forming and shearing processes  Heat treating
 Material removal processes  Other manufacturing processes
 Joining and assembling processes
Casting and moulding processes
Material is shaped using a mould or die cavity. These processes are applicable for plastics as well as
metals. In casting processes, molten material is sent to a cavity under gravitational force or by pressurised
flow and allowed to solidify inside the cavity. Certain moulding processes for thermoplastics also require
molten material to fill the cavity, but moulding of thermosetting plastics and rubber does not require the
material to be melted to fill the cavity.

Forming and shearing processes

The basic purpose of forming and shearing is to modify the shape, size, and/or physical properties of the
work-piece. These processes are applicable for plastics as well as metals. Metal forming and shearing is
done in both “Hot” and “Cold” states. Classification of Hot and Cold refers to the re-crystallisation
temperature of the metal being processed.

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Material removal processes

This refers to the removal of material from certain selected areas of a work-piece to obtain the desired
shape, size, or finish. Material Removal Processes can be categorised as “Conventional MRPs’” and
“Non-conventional MRPs’”. There are seven basic conventional MRPs’, i.e. shaping, drilling, turning,
milling, sawing, broaching, and abrasive machining. There are four basic types of non-conventional
MRPs’, i.e. thermal, mechanical, chemical, and electro-chemical processes.

Joining and assembling processes

Joining and assembling processes are used to join similar or dissimilar materials and to assemble different
component together to make an assembly. Adhesive bonding, welding, and mechanical fastening are the
three basic types of joining and assembling processes. There are different types of welding processes,
such as fusion welding, soldering and brazing, and solid state welding. Threaded fasteners, and press,
shrink, or snap fittings, are different types of mechanical fasteners.

Finishing processes (Surface treatments)

These are typically used for cleaning, removing burrs, or to provide protective and/or decorative surfaces
on the work-piece. Chemical and mechanical cleaning, deburring, painting, plating, buffing, galvanising,
and anodizing are some finishing processes.

Heat treatments
This refers to heating and cooling of a material in specific manner to alter its metallurgical and
mechanical properties. Each metal is reacted differently to heat treatments. Therefore it is very important
to know such behaviours of material, in addition to the heat treatment process.

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