Course syllabus

lp1 HT20 (7,5 hp)

The course is given by the Department of Industrial and Materials Science. 

 

Contact information

Examiner

Björn Johansson

e-mail: bjorn.johansson@chalmers.se

phone: 031 - 772 3809

 

Teachers & Course Coordinators

Xiaoxia Chen 

e-post: xiaoxia.chen@chalmers.se

phone: 031 - 772 6428

 

Ninan Theradapuzha Mathew

e-post: ninant@chalmers.se

phone: 031 - 772 1496

 

Course purpose and target

The course Simulation and Visualization of Production Systems:

• Focuses on developing the students' understanding of theories, methods and engineering tools, aiming at developing production processes and operating technically complex production systems with consideration for both economic and social development as well as with climate and environmental responsibility.
• Focuses on the virtual world knowledge field for long-term sustainable process and production development with the aim of developing the efficiency, adaptability, flexibility and adaptability of producing companies.
• Introduce students to the modern production techniques foundation and develop such skills using some of the virtual technology tools creating the possibility to immerse deeper into the subject through the bachelor thesis.
• Aims to elevate interest for further education in the subject area and serve as preparation for, in particular, Chalmers Master’s program Production Engineering.

 

Course organization

The course contains lectures, exercises, projects and laboratory exercises. The purpose of the course's practical parts is to create an understanding of and skills in using virtual tools for production development. The course website in Canvas is constantly updated and constitutes an important source of information. Reading material, laboratory instructions, literature and other necessary documents are published on Canvas.

 

Course content

Production system refers to the entire system of people, tools and machines that cooperate in the development and production of products. Production is about the constant adaptation of human and economic factors to changing conditions, which performs with the help of new theories and methods. The course focuses on the virtual world technology and working methods for understanding and securing production in terms of openness to new opportunities instead of having it formulated by the habitually expectant. In this perspective, we introduce:

• The main factors of the general production system
• Variables affecting production systems
• Guidelines for organizing floor workshops
• Production concepts
• Productivity concept
• The basics of automation technology
• Sensor technology
• Industrial robot technology
• Layout planning
• Simulation of production flows
• Line balancing
• Knowledge theory and operator training in the virtual world

 

Learning objectives

Course objectives are for students to be knowledgeable in:

• From a production perspective, put the concepts of sustainable development in its social context and report on its connections to economic, social and environmental responsibility in engineering.
• Explain basic concepts and methods regarding the construction and operation of production systems.
• Understand and apply the methodology to design a sustainable production system in a virtual environment and perform material flow analysis.
• Describe and apply principles for line preparation with respect to sequence and balance.
• Motivate the virtual world’s potential for developing modern production processes.
• Master the basic concepts and problem statement of industrial IT-environment, and explain the need for IT-strategies to enable systematic recovery of information throughout the production development chain.
• Describe the database’s role for an efficient integrated product and production development, version management techniques, and challenges with different types of file formats.
• Motivate the need to be able to control product performance and producibility during the preparation phase of the product development process.
• Motivate the need for flexible production and explain what an industrial robot is, and describe and be able to apply the principles for its design and control.
• Present a model for how skills are developed, different ways of communicating knowledge transfer, the motor skills learning curve and being able to explain the potential of virtual learning and the limitation of operator training.

 

Course literature

• Holweg, Matthias, et al. Process theory: the principles of operations management. Oxford University Press, 2018.
• Lecture slides.
• More materials from the reading guide.

 

Examination

Approved exercises, tests, laboratory, project reports and written examinations. In grading of the final grade are examinations and project reports weighed accordingly: examination maximum of 50 points, project report maximum of 20 points. Maximum possible amount of points 70.

Grading:

• Failure – less than 30 points
• Grade 3 - over 30 points
• Grade 4 - over 42,5 points
• Grade 5 - over 55 points

 

Examination date

24 Oct 2020 fm L,

04 Jan 2021 em L,

20 Aug 2021 em L

(Last day for signing up: 11 Oct. 2020.)

 

Other contact details

Other teaching staff & lab tutors:

Arpita Chari, arpitac@chalmers.se 

Daniel Nåfors, daniel.nafors@chalmers.se

Johan Nordling (Siemens), johan.nordling@siemens.com

Maja Bärring, maja.barring@chalmers.se

Marcus Andersson (Siemens), marcus.andersson@siemens.com

Per Nyqvist, per.nyqvist@chalmers.se