A study on Autonomous Maintenance (AM) implementation was conducted for CNC machine at automotive components manufacturing line in order to identify and measure equipment losses related to availability, performance and quality rate. These values were used to determine the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of the manufacturing line before and after AM implementation. The project started with AM team formation before it was continued with 5S activities and fuguai (abnormality) detection and restoration. Kaizen was used for continuous improvement to restore deteriorated parts and components of the machine. Autonomous Maintenance standards such as cleaning, lubricating and inspection were developed. The AM team members consistently followed the operator maintenance standards to ensure that machine is always in good working condition. The OEE results were taken daily after AM implementation and compared with the data before the implementation. The average OEE result shows significant improvement from 65.8% to 80.4% after the AM implementation. However, the result still did not achieve the company’s target. The main reason was because the machine was very old, which almost reaches deterioration stage according to the bath tub curve. Some recommendations are suggested as to push the OEE value closer to the company’s target including a review on other pillars in Total Productive Maintenance (TPM).

Today competitive manufacturing requires innovative approaches in the production management, as well as for customer satisfaction. Production management requires an effective and efficient maintenance management system. One approach to improve the performance of the maintenance system is through the implementation of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM). The key performance index to measure the effectiveness of TPM implementation is Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE). The TPM activities will eliminate equipment losses related to availability, performance rate, and quality rate. Hence, the TPM implementation will increase the OEE value. This paper outlines the theories of TPM and OEE. The paper also presents the studies carried out by different authors to show the improvement of OEE through implementation of TPM in manufacturing, such as electronic industry, steel manufacturer, as well as locomotive components manufacturer.

The joint technology using ultrasonic welding is used to bond plastic material. Currently there are many researches to study the feasibility of using ultrasonic bonding to joint other materials. This paper reviewed the study on using ultrasonic bonding to joint multi metal, surface mount component, and textile material. The process configurations of each material are discussed and the results for each study are also presented. The multi metal materials bonding result shows that these materials bonded well to each other. The ultrasonic bonding strength for SMT components was as good as reflow oven and it was cosmetically accepted. The configuration of textile materials is investigated using vibrating ultrasonic horn and stationary anvil using high mechanical vibration and the result show it can be integrated ultrasonically. With advancement of computer control in ultrasonic welding, this technology can be used for any material in future to achieve world class manufacturing.

Negligible factors in bulk materials, such as grain-size effects, have proven inappropriate to be neglected for micro-forming processes. Studies had shown that material behavior varies greatly with the increasing of the scale in the micro-forming world. Therefore, in every micro-forming-related process, especially in micro-stamping, studies and analyses of each material used for the process have to be considered as indispensable in order to be able to understand their behavior and to be able to correlate their behavior with the process. Uniaxial tensile-testing experiments have been carried out to determine the strip’s properties, behavior and its correlation with the feeding process in micro-stamping/micro-sheet-forming application. Based on the results of the uniaxial tensile-test experiments conducted, the flow stress was found to decrease with the decrease of the strip thickness and vice versa, due to the size/scale effect. A surface model was used to explain the findings.

Precision feeding is essential for micro-stamping, especially in multi-stage progressive forming operations, where necessary feeding rates also have to be maintained. Research in micro-stamping of thinner sheet metals (<100 microns) led to investigations of the performance of existing sheet-metal feeders, regarding their accuracy and repeatability in high speed micro-stamping. The results indicated that the pursuance of higher feeding accuracy and repeatability which aimed at 5-15% of the strip thickness was unachievable with the existing micro-feeders. A new high-precision and high-speed feeder was, therefore, developed for micro-sheet-forming. Initial non-optimized experimental results had showed high accuracy and repeatability were achieved.