The 21st Century: Paradigm Shifts in Manufacturing

August 23, 2012 12:14 pm

 
“Anticipating and preparing for the future itself would give the organisations a jump start once they envision in their strategic roadmap and evaluate the commercial viability of what science and technology has to offer in times to come’, penned Naresh T Raisinghani, CEO and Executive Director, BMGI India
If not for the inventions and discoveries of the humans, we would have been living a life with distances traversed by horses/ bullock carts, communication by letters carried by hands/ birds, cooking over fire and other such primitive practices supported by hand tools and muscle power. For over a thousand years, our ancestors did just that.
In only 150 years, man learnt to bridle the horse of technology to convert ‘handmade’ into ‘machine made’ and lifted humans into a wonderful new life filled with abundant goods & services and the leisure to enjoy them. From Henry Ford’s Model T to the BMW’s X Series; from the Wright Brothers’ planes to Boeing’s jetliners; from Graham Bell’s cranked phones to Apple’s iPhones, we started getting opportunity to experience science fiction in real life, thanks to the ability of the human race to manufacture what is dreamt. A closer look at the drivers for a need to manufacture reveals:   
Consumer’s latent needs and changing desireSince time immemorial the human race has innate desires to overcome its physical and mental limitations and be superior in all forms. Whether it means travelling faster than all known animate forms of life and ultimately desiring to conquer the speed of light; having the strength to move or mountains or having the convenience of being served in order to invest time in pursuit of discovery and creation or just spending time in leisure
This  propels humans to search for the product or a service that gives the Ideal Final Result which will have the capability to perform all the desired functions and would for all practical purposes have least cost, least environmental impact in short the highest efficiency possible. This fundamental drive towards idealism is the first cornerstone which impacts the destiny of manufacturing.
Science and TechnologyIn the past two centuries the progress made by man in deciphering nature and his ability to toy with it, is the second cornerstone which has affected the progress of manufacturing.
Also, the three major reasons hindering this progress: reliability of the new technology, viability of its cost and the most significant: social acceptance of ‘change is for the better’ when a successful alternativeis running.
 A systematic evaluation of trends in the centuries gone by and the present day that have affected the practices of manufacturing enables us to envision the direction headed to in the upcoming decades
The trends that have impacted and shaped / will continue to shape the destiny of manufacturing are outlined under five dimensions.
Dimension 1: Shifts in Sources of EnergyOne of the first shifts in source of energy that revolutionised manufacturing was the popularisation of steam engines over wood and coal.  The second significant shift occurred when the factories moved to electric power. Even though the first electric power plant which could supply electricity over a distance was established by 1880 in the US, it took over half a century for electrification to become a way of life for factories, with one of the first plants in US being electrified in 1920.
In times to come the third shift will occur, when we move to alternate forms of non-fossil fuels. This shift towards renewable energy will have a significant ‘greening’ effect on earth making it a more sustainable planet to significant reduction in carbon emissions 2050. The availability for solar energy is abundant. Even though today other renewable forms have shown potential for commercial usage, such as wind energy, in times to come we shouldn’t be surprised if solar power becomes the dominant energy source and scales up the current pilot of solar powered calculators and the solar power microlite plane.
Dimension 2 – Shifts in MaterialsThe age of ‘made of wood and steel’ might be coming to an end. The future lies in more pronounced usage and applications of materials like aluminium, magnesium or newer and more reinforced polymers and plastics, as we see the transformation occur in cars, white goods, or Kevlar based bullet-proof vests, etc.
Based on the principles of ideal final result the focus clearly has shifted to high performing, stronger materials, minimising the harmful effects, and hence light-weight materials and non-toxic nature for both humans and the environment.
These shifts in materials would cause radical shifts in manufacturing processes. New adhesive technologies in automotive industry and other sectors for painting, plastics and other surfaces, and likewise processes to manufacture lighter structures of carbon fibre and other magnesium / other alloys compared to steel manufacturing are only indicators of what the future holds.
Dimension 3 – Shifts in Manufacturing MethodsThe third dimension brings together the shifts experienced in the manufacturing processes. With the desire to harness, the processes seek:• Making any geometry, tolerance, size and hardness • Higher speeds and throughputs• Higher management controls and least interference• Miniaturisation (largely related to chemical, medical and semi-conductor industries).
Does the future lie in using more non-traditional processes like electrical discharge machining (EDM), electrical chemical machining (ECM), water and abrasive jet machining, ultrasonic machining and tools like neural networks, fuzzy logic as well as expert systems or can we imagine a world where products can be developed from thin air?
If the progress made in various private / government funded research labs and various machine manufacturers’ interest were plotted on a timeline, we can clearly see the fundamental shifts that are going to prevail in times to come moving towards ideal machining: 
Traditional manufacturing can be looked at in two broad categories :Discrete Manufacturing and Process manufacturing. While Henry Ford initiated mass manufacturing leveraging the concept of interchangeability, James Muspratt, around the 18th century, mass manufactured soda ash. Both types of manufacturing have moved a lot in terms of better consistency, lower tolerance adherence and higher volumes. The machines to mass manufacture in a classical progression scaled up/down in size, and became more flexible for different products to be produced on the same machines, as the decades progressed.
The first shift occurred around 1960s with the introduction of harder materials, the desire to manage complex geometries, to achieve better finishes. The traditional manufacturing was inadequate and gave way to the non-traditional manufacturing like EDM, ECM, water and abrasive jet machining, ultrasonic machining. One of the most revolutionary methodologies has been the laser cutting techniques for various material removal and contouring applications. With its origins in brewing and industrial fermentation, the second major shift occurred with the discovery of biotechnology that gained prominence in 1980s as a strong complement and in some cases replacement of classical pharma product drug development options.  Key applications of industrial biotechnology include usage of energy-efficient and eco-friendly biocatalysts which synthesizes chemical products and minimises use of mineral aids/bases and other toxic substances. Likewise enzyme bio-reactors are at several places being used for treating industrial waste. In the next 20 years, Biotechnology is expected to have a substantial effect on the chemical industry with special focus on fine chemicals and speciality chemicals.
The third revolutionary shift is occurring with the understanding and ability to operate at the nano-level, nearly 1/80,000th of a human hair thickness.  Nanomaterials have nanostructured components that are less than 100nm. In some sense, electronic miniaturization has been the true driving force for nanotechnology research and applications.The foundation for this defining technology occurred, with the development of the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) in 1981, by Nobel Prize winners, Greg Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM.

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