Incorporating reliability and maintenance requirements into the design of an advanced manufacturing facility

Considers the introduction of a combined punching and bending machining facility into a manufacturing system designed to produce sheet metal structures used in the air conditioning and ventilation industry. The facility takes in sheet metal, places it into a computerised storage system, and then selects it as required for further punching and pressing operations. The integrated system represents a major investment in terms of financial commitment, and also represents a move towards flexible manufacturing. Since the manufacturing system is intended to replace all existing machining facilities, and hence undertake all of the manufacturing operations required within the company, its availability is critical. This paper considers a method of initially estimating the reliability of the system and its maintenance requirements and investigates the effect of this on the various system design configurations