Function Block Algorithm for Operation Planning on Cloud-DPP System : A case study of turbine disc from Sandvik Coromant

Abstract: The project presented in this report is the outcome of a Master of Science thesis project which has been accomplished at Sandvik Coromant in Sandviken, Sweden. This Master’s thesis is part of a long-term effort devised by Sandvik Coromant, related the European research project CAPP-4-SMEs, which is a function block based on approach for distributed process planning combined with cloud manufacturing. The purpose of long-term version in Sandvik Coromant is to develop an industrial demo prototype system for agile process planning with embedded flexibility that also will enable implementation of functionalities for real time adaptation and control. This thesis project, as a part of the Sandvik Coromant major project, focused on operation planning part, analyzed and developed a demo software to implement it. Shop-floor uncertainty is an inevitable problem in manufacturing, especially in today’s market, the needs of customized products and service has greatly increased. How to improve production adaptability and reduce the time to deal with dynamic factors in production has become one of the core issues in the international industrial fields. In this Master of Science thesis project, the challenges of low adaptability in current process planning are discussed. In order to meet these challenges, the concept “Cloud DPP (Cloud - Distributed Process Planning)” combined with Function Block (FB) technology is applied to establish a process planning system that enables high degree of flexibility, automation as well as efficient resource sharing, scalability and accessibility regarding IT-systems and software applications. Taking a specific turning feature in aerospace engine as a case study, this project designs two schemes of integrated FB and distributed FB respectively. Two software demos are built, and the differences of modularization, accuracy and scalability are compared between the two systems. The result verifies the fact that the use of FB algorithm and cloud-DPP method significantly improves the adaptability of the process planning. In FB method, the distributed FB software system has better modularity and scalability.