Virtual approach to holonic control of the tyre manufacturing system

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Journal of Manufacturing Systems 33 (2014) 116–128

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Manufacturing Systems journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jmansys

Technical paper

Virtual approach to holonic control of the tyre-manufacturing system Marko Jovanovic´ a,∗ , Samo Zupan b , Marko Starbek c , Ivan Prebil b a

University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Modelling in Engineering Sciences and Medicine, Slovenia University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Modelling in Engineering Sciences and Medicine, Slovenia c University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Cybernetics, Mechatronic and Production Engineering, Slovenia b

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history: Received 25 January 2013 Received in revised form 19 May 2013 Accepted 9 July 2013 Available online 16 August 2013 Keywords: Tyre manufacturing Holonic manufacturing system Virtual environment UML JADE

a b s t r a c t Tyre manufacturers aiming to remain competitive in complex modern markets must promptly adjust to the changes within the production environment. With traditional tyre-manufacturing systems, a slow response during optimization of the manufacturing process and low-level adaptability to system disturbances is evident. The presented approach to virtual holonic control of the tyre-manufacturing system enables dynamic response in the event of new optimization demands, decrease of the impact of disturbances on system productivity and smaller future investments in the manufacturing equipment. The developed virtual manufacturing environment enables analysis of the manufacturing process, visualization of operations, management of simulation parameters of the operations and analysis of the control system behaviour within a virtual manufacturing system prior to the implementation of the suitable control approach into a real-life manufacturing system. This helps to avoid failures in the manufacturing system due to potential disadvantages of the manufacturing system structure or lack of coordination between control parameters. Evaluation of the holonic control approach implementation within the virtual tyre-manufacturing system is performed based on simulation tests for various scenarios, whereby system operation in stable and unstable condition is taken into account. At the end, analysis results are presented. By means of the virtual tyre-manufacturing system, optimization requirements in stable condition of the holonic control system can be achieved in real time compared to the optimization which is applied in the conventional control approach. In the event of a disturbance, the holonic control approach increases productivity compared to the conventional control approach. © 2013 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Tyre manufacture takes place in 18 EU countries with approximately 90 plants. In Europe there are 7 of 10 world leading tyre manufacturers and they contribute to 59% of world production. In 2009, tyre manufacture in Europe decreased by 30% compared to year 2007 due to recession. According to the European Tyre and Rubber Manufacturers’ Association – ETRMA [1], in the same period sales of passenger car tyres decreased by 10%, while the sales of cargo vehicle tyres decreased by as much as 25%. Data for year 2010 and 2011 show an increase of production in both branches. Increased complexity in environment of global economic competition is a vital characteristic of today’s tyre manufacture and results in changes within the manufacturing system and

∗ Corresponding author at: University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Chair of Modelling in Engineering Sciences and Medicine, Aˇskerˇceva c. 6, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia. Tel.: +386 1 4771 190; fax: +386 1 4771 178. E-mail addresses: msjovanovic@gmail.com, marko.jovanovic@fs.uni-lj.si ´ (M. Jovanovic).

manufacturing process. More than one billion tyres of various types are manufactured each year for different vehicle types. Various sizes of individual tyre types additionally increase complexity of manufacturing processes. Tyre manufacturers aiming to remain competitive in such market conditions must promptly adjust to the changes within the production environment and market demands in regard to high quality and competitive prices. The tyre manufacturing process usually consists of five operations: mixing of raw materials for the manufacture of tyre components, preparation of components, “green”-tyre manufacturing, vulcanization and final build-up. Tyre components are assembled in the “green”-tyre manufacturing operation to produce a “green” or uncured tyre. The “green”-tyre manufacturing operation is performed inside the “green”-tyre manufacturing system. After that, “green” tyres are loaded into presses and cured (vulcanized). After final build-up, the tyre manufacturing process is completed. This paper will focus on the “green”-tyre manufacturing operation. Traditional tyre-manufacturing systems have a centralized control structure, whereby central control unit is applied to the control of the manufacturing process. With such systems, a slow response

0278-6125/$ – see front matter © 2013 The Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2013.07.005


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