Course syllabus

Course-PM

PM PPU055 Virtual production lp2 HT24

The course is offered by the Department of Industrial and Materials Science

Contact details

Examiner

Bjorn Johansson

E-mail: bjorn.johansson@chalmers.se

Phone: 031 - 772 38 09

Course Co-ordinates

Silvan Marti

Email: silvan@chalmers.se 

Phone : 031- 772 16 43

 

Purpose and target of course

The course Virtual Production:

• Focuses on developing 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 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 reconfigurability of producing companies.
• Introduces students to the foundation of modern production techniques and develops such skills using virtual technology tools that a bachelor thesis in the topic is possible to carry out.
• Aims to elevate interest for further education in the subject area and serve as preparation for, in particular, Chalmers Master’s program in Production Engineering.

 

Course objectives for students are 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 a 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 in an efficient integrated product and production development, version management techniques, and challenges with different types of file formats.
• Describe the most important strategies and principles for automation.
• Describe the different types of sensors, understanding their function and application areas.
• Explain the principles of controlling production and implementing a simple PLC program (PLC = Programmable Logic Controller).
• Motivate the need to be able to control product performance and producibility during the preparation phase of the product development process.
• Explain the operation of an NC machine (CNC control system) and its control of it (CNC = Computer Numerical Control).
• 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.

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 a constant adaptation of human and economic factors to changing conditions, which performs with the help of new theories and methods. The course focuses on virtual world technology and related methods for understanding and securing production in terms of openness to new opportunities instead of it being constrained by business as usual. In this perspective, we introduce:

 

• The main factors of the general production system
• Variables affecting production systems
• Guidelines for organizing layout of workshops
• Production concepts
• Productivity concept
• The basics of automation technology
• Sensor technology
• Industrial robot technology
• Layout planning
• Simulation of production flows
• Line balancing
• Ergonomics simulation
• Computer-aided preparation and programming of NC machines
• PLC programming
• Operator training in a virtual world

 

Organisation

The course contains lectures, guest lectures, exercises, projects, and laboratory exercises. The purpose of the practical parts is to create understanding and skills in using virtual tools for production development.

The course website in Canvas is constantly updated and constitutes an important source of information. Lecture material, laboratory instructions, literature and other important documents are published on Canvas.

Literature

• Sections from the book Process Theory : The Principles of Operations Management Links to an external site
• Lecture slides
• More materials from the reading guide

Assignments

For deadlines, see Canvas for each individual assignment.

• SSLP Layout
• Information Management
• recorded lecture content and quiz (Result not part of examination)
• DPS Project

• • Exercise, base model, and improved model should be presented during scheduled lab sessions. The improved model should be presented, at the latest, at the last planned lab session.

• Virtual Production Planning
• Robot Simulation
• DPS Project Presentation
• Book Seminar
• DPS Project Report

Examination

Passing the course requires approved exercises, tests, laboratory, project reports, and written examinations. Final grading is based on the examination and project report are weighed accordingly: examination maximum of 50 points, project report maximum of 20 points. Maximum possible total points 70.

You need a minimum of 8 points in the project and 24 in the examination to get a passing grade in the course.

Grading:

• Failure – less than 32 points
• Grade 3 - 32 points or over
• Grade 4 - 42,5 points or over
• Grade 5 - 55 points or over

Examination: 13^th January 2025