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become idle while CNCs can be easily reprogrammed for producing other parts. Yet the
concluding statement could be different when modular SPMs are utilized.
The field of machine tools for generating singular products is well documented; however,
the area of specialist machines for dedicated tasks has received less attention (Allen
et al.
,
2010). This is particularly true for modular SPMs that are a new addition to the family of
SPMs (Tolouei-Rad and Tabatabaei, 2005). Proper design and utilization of these machines
depend upon knowledge, experience, and creativity of SPM designers and machining
specialists. Because of modularity in structure, these machines can be applied to the
production of a range of parts upon modification. The specific advantages of utilization of
this technology have placed them in a superior position in comparison with other machine
tools. These advantages include mass production of parts in shorter time, high accuracy of
products, uniformity and repeatability of production, elimination of some quality control
steps, simultaneous machining of a number of parts, and reduced labour and overhead
costs.
The modular principle is very popular in the design of many products such as automobile,
home appliances, information devices, industrial equipment, etc. This trend can be
considered as one of the great contributions of modular design of machine tools to those
working in other industries (Yoshimi, 2008). This article focuses on modular SPMs and for
simplicity in the rest of this article modular SPM is referred to as SPM. SPMs do not have a
rigid bulky configuration and the machine can be rapidly set up by putting together a
number of machining and sliding units, chassis, and other equipment. This is achieved by
making use of various types of mechanical fasteners. Once the part in production is no
longer in demand, SPMs can be dis-assembled and re-assembled in a different configuration
to be used for producing other parts. Properly utilization of SPMs could have a significant
impact on the productivity of manufacturing industries; and production improvements of
up to 25:1 have been reported (Suhner, 2001). However, the extent of the application of SPM
technology in industry is not proportional to its potential impact on productivity
improvement. This is mainly attributed to the fact that machining specialists find it difficult
to decide when to use SPMs. Making the right decision is a time-consuming task and
requires a techno-economical analysis to be performed by expert people. This article
addresses a methodology developed to tackle this vital problem. It investigates the
possibility and effectiveness of employing artificial intelligent techniques to assist
manufacturing firms in feasibility analysis of utilizing SPMs in order to improve
productivity. It is important to note that in spite of many publications on production
technologies and machine tool design; publications on design and utilization of SPMs are
very limited.
Intelligent systems have been extensively used to effectively tackle some real engineering
problems in the last three decades. Yet researchers explore new application areas for
utilization of various artificial intelligence techniques. Knowledge-based expert systems
(KBESs) have proven to be effective for decision making when dealing with qualitative
information, hard to capture in a computer program. Accordingly, in the current work a
KBES has been developed and used for utilization feasibility analysis of SPMs in different
manufacturing settings.
