TEC Smart Factory Lab for Learning 'Lean Robotics'

Abstract

The Tecnológico de Monterrey (TEC) and the University of Alberta (UofA) are working together on creating a “Smart Factory Lab” to support the hands-on learning of automation, robotization, and digitalization technologies to prepare engineering students for their future roles as “Engineers 4.0” at the emerging smart factories in the Industry 4.0 era. Manufacturing industries are constantly working to enhance production efficiency and process automation while minimizing waste and timeto-market as well as improving quality and performance. The “Lean Robotics” methodology presents a sustainable approach to reducing waste and increasing a company’s throughput using lean manufacturing concepts to deploy robotic automation. The proposed TEC Smart Factory Lab combines smart manufacturing technologies with lean manufacturing principles, methods, and tools in a unique environment. Students learn hands-on programming with (collaborative) robots, develop process optimization, implement lean principles, and apply reconfigurability approaches to improve manufacturing operations and the process value streams that these represent. The Learning Factory offers hands-on exercises for engineering students to learn value stream mapping and optimize manufacturing cells and their operations. The engineering students investigate and map the value stream of a production process to identify the waste within it, creating a current value stream map of it. In the first learning phase, the students identify bottlenecks and improvement areas by observation, data recorded by smart sensors, and information provided by an ERP system. In the next learning phase, students must implement the proposed improvements physically, create a future value stream map of the improved process, and record the percentage of performance improvement of the new process value chain. The learning factory’s primary teaching and research areas are (i) new methods and approaches for robot-assisted manufacturing and (ii) lean robotics cell design and testing.

Keywords: Learning Factory, Lean Manufacturing, Lean Robotics, Smart Factory Lab, Smart Manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping