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Until recently, process factories could be opened only by large enterprises for the purposes of implementing the lean manufacturing system. However, these training centers were not intended for university students. They trained current employees of the enterprises, which have already had real production experience.
Among higher educational institutions of the region, Samara University was the first to open their own process factory. This made it possible to include practical work on the topic of lean manufacturing in the educational process, expanding the list of competencies obtained by engineering students.
“Modern engineers needs to know lean manufacturing tools. They should be able to apply the tools in practice both when optimizing existing production facilities and when designing new ones. The process factory facilitates for future engineers to get aware of basic principles of organizing modern efficient production”, explains Dmitry Antipov, Head of the Department of Aircraft Production and Quality Management.
During practical work at the process factory, students organize and optimize operation of production sites. Besides, teachers have at their disposal training simulators that imitate changeover of die tooling, and simulators to increase productivity of assembly operations. The processes considered at the “factory” model typical problems faced by production workers rather well. Using these simple examples, students learn how to balance production flows, optimize in-house logistics, reduce losses, and increase labor productivity.
Currently, at the process factory, training cases on the technology of mass production of small unmanned aerial vehicles (quadcopters) are prepared and worked out, so that students of the Institute of Aerospace Engineering could study lean manufacturing using the example of aircraft engineering. This is a very timely step, considering that at present, the aerospace industry shifts to large-scale production of small-sized space and aviation equipment. The industry has a task of setting up production of hundreds and thousands of small satellites, tens of thousands of drones.
For designing modern automated production lines capable of effectively solving such tasks, specialists must be equally proficient in lean manufacturing tools and digital technologies. At the Advanced Aerospace Engineering School of Samara University, where engineers of the new formation are trained, the “factory” and the “digit” have been united. They’ve got a new quality. According to Dmitry Antipov, applying software packages made it possible to model production processes in the virtual environment.
“Combining visibility provided by the process factory with digital modeling of production in virtual reality takes the educational process to a new level. After the course of practical work at the “factory”, where methods for optimizing production flows are learnt using simple examples, AAES students move on to virtual design of technological processes and production lines. This allows both consolidating the knowledge gained and mastering the software packages to be used at many enterprises”, said Ekaterina Savich, Deputy Director of the Advanced Aerospace Engineering School.
The cycle of practical work at the process factory is included in the course “Lean Manufacturing”. Moreover, classes on this topic are integrated into other academic courses and modules to be used for forming IOTs - individual educational trajectories of the Institute of Aerospace Engineering students. As for of the AAES Master degree students, their lean manufacturing and the practical work at the process factory are integrated into the course “Technologies and Tools for Creating a Digital Factory”.
"By forming training programs, we combine lean manufacturing tools and digital design technologies, for the purpose of teaching AAES students how to create modern, efficient cyber-physical factories. By the way, by the end of 2023, within the School, we will have launched two such robotic pilot plants. Besides solving research tasks, they will also be integrated into the educational process”, recalled Ivan Tkachenko, Director of the Advanced Aerospace Engineering School.
The University’s process factory conduct classes not only for students. This training complex is also involved in the programs of advanced professional education “Production-Line Design and Engineering” and “Methods of Efficient Production Management” to be intended for engineering-service personnel of enterprises.
