Decoupling Executions in Navigating Manufacturing Processes for Shortening Lead Time and Its Implementation to an Unmanned Machine Shop

A new navigation method that decouples manufacturing processes of tailor-made products has been developed for shortening lead time. Axiomatic Design expresses manufacturing processes with two design equations; one with functional requirement (FR) of “defining process” and design parameter (DP) of “decisions in process,” and the other with FR of “predicting completion time of product” and DP of “priority of product.” Once formulated, decoupling the system with the rules of “No feedback” and “No moving up” effectively shortens lead time. Applying the navigation methodology to a real unmanned machine shop of molds, eventually shortened it from 44 to 7.7 days.