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ANN ARBOR—Engineers at the University of Michigan have created the world’s first, full-scale reconfigurable machine tool (RMT), an important step to designing more flexible and efficient factories for the future.

The tool creates machine-level flexibility. Factories built around reconfigurable machining technology will be able to respond to market demand quickly. Ultimately, consumers should benefit from more product choices at lower prices. The new tool will be displayed Sept. 4-11 at the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago.

In recent years, computer-aided design tools have allowed companies to develop new products at a breakneck pace. At the same time, however, the ability to manufacture these products at affordable prices has lagged behind. Traditional factories are expensive to build and, in many cases, specialized around manufacturing only one product. As a result, they must build the same product for many years to recoup investment costs, even while market demand or designs for the product might have changed. But if researchers at the U-M’s Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC-RMS) have their way, companies will soon be building new factories that account from the outset for both changes in market demand and product design, and that can grow and evolve over time.

“The next generation of factories built around RMTs will be much more organic than current factories,” said ERC-RMS Director Yoram Koren. “Instead of building new factories every time we want to manufacture a new product or introduce a new technology, we will build factories for a product family and simply upgrade or reconfigure these existing factories with new capabilities.” The Michigan “Arch-type RMT” is the first tool to demonstrate the adaptability that can be built into a factory on the machine level. Designed to offer the most versatility with the least amount of complexity, the tool can cut cylinder heads for any vehicle of any major automobile manufacturer. Theoretically, a reconfigurable manufacturing system equipped with a full complement of similar RMTs would be able to switch from manufacturing one type of cylinder head to another within a few hours or less. Such flexibility could help manufacturers better manage their production capacity, as well as speed the introduction of new models.

“Scalable and reconfigurable factories will drastically change the business of mass production,” said A. Galip Ulsoy, deputy director of ERC-RMS. “With reduced product development time and the ability to switch production between different products, manufacturers will be able to offer consumers more choices in less time and for less money.”

Dean Stephen W. Director of the U-M College of Engineering said: “Productivity gain is a driver of economic growth. Michigan Engineersing faculty, through innovation at the ERC-RMS, continue to lead the research world in identifying new ways to improve manufacturing processes. I am proud of this work, and appreciate the support of the National Science Foundation and our partners in this historic achievement.” ERC-RMS was established in 1996 and is one of 20 Engineering Research Centers funded by the National Science Foundation to research an area of national importance. Focused on developing new technologies for competitive manufacturing, ERC-RMS is pioneering the field of “reconfiguration science” and advancing state-of-the-art manufacturing in a number of key areas. Today, the center collaborates with over 20 partners from industry and is the largest organized effort devoted to basic research in manufacturing in the United States. The U-M College of Engineering is consistently ranked among the top engineering schools in the world.

The College is composed of 11 academic departments: aerospace engineering; atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences; biomedical engineering; chemical engineering; civil and environmental engineering; electrical engineering and computer science; industrial and operations engineering; materials science and engineering; mechanical engineering; naval architecture and marine engineering; and nuclear engineering and radiological sciences.

Each year the college enrolls 7,000 undergraduate and graduate students and grants over 1,000 undergraduate degrees and over 700 master’s and doctoral degrees. To learn more, visit Web site at www.engin.umich.edu.

Related Links:

• International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago
•  U-M’s Engineering Research Center for Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (ERC-RMS)
• Yoram Koren