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Examines how Mars Electronics International Ltd of Wokingham, expanded into transaction electronics [the handling of money] investing heavily in equipment for the automatic assembly of printed circuit boards and subsequently investigating ways of minimizing work in progress and lead time, with the eventual aim of producing single boards with zero change‐over time and no loss of efficiency. Discusses how MEI have progressed from bench assembly to fully automated robotics assembly via an interim flexible guided manual assembly line for small batch production. Concludes that with its wide range of assembly automation experience, MEI has learnt the importance of flexibility in a system and predicts that in the future attention will focus on “machines built around people” with concern for access, servicing and the environment.

Studies parts presentation in manufacturing processes, most of which is now mechanized. Looks at various materials such as metals, paper, springs and food products and how their characteristics affect the way they are presented. Examines the various operations that have to be carried out during presentation including the use of hopperfeeds and vibratory bowl feeders. It is during presentation that parts are often inspected, using types devices including mechanical probes, cameras and optical systems. Looks at parts presentation processes in several industries such as the high speed packaging of pharmaceutical pills, packaging of cigarettes and the manufacture of shirts.

In 1967 Mr Geoffrey Boothroyd, a lecturer at the University of Salford, left the UK to join the University of Massachusetts in the USA. On 1 July 1991 Professor Boothroyd, of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering in the University of Rhode Island and President of Boothroyd Dewhurst, Inc., returned to the University of Salford to talk briefly about his career in the intervening period and to give an account of the development of the Boothroyd Dewhurst methodology and software tool Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) with which his name is now closely associated in the USA and in Europe. The title for the evening was “Radical Redesign”.

For us, manufacturing means assembling and, when we have done that, we test and then we pack. When we can do all this as a continuous sequence of operations, with as much automation as technology and economics permit, we shall be as efficient as we can be.

There are about 20 million cars on the roads of Britain these days. About 1.5 million of them retire from the roads in the year, through age, death or damnation. What happens to them?

The product design that is best for function, for manufacturing, for assembling and for servicing results in the best product. Such a design is an ideal so difficult to achieve that it has to be tackled in stages, which ultimately have to be successfully integrated. The stages of Design for Manufacture (DFM) and Design for Assembly (DFA) combine towards that integration in the form of Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA). Some broad guidelines for DFMA are given in Table I.

Advanced Robotics Research Ltd (ARRL) launched their Virtual Reality and Simulation Initiative at the National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, Salford, on Friday, 2 July 1993. Lord Wade of Chorlton was the Guest of Honour.

A group of users, academics and suppliers of virtual reality systems and equipment — about 35 people — got together on Monday and Tuesday 6 and 7 September 1993 at the University of Reading to assess the progress and prospects of virtual reality as applied to engineering. The event was organized by the computing and control division of the Institution of Electrical Engineers. It had been advertised as a workshop but there was little scope for hands‐on participation by delegates. There were 16 lectures and a small exhibition by suppliers and by the host university department.

A symposium on this subject was held at the New Connaught Rooms in London on 21 October 1992. Twelve papers were presented and about 30 delegates attended. All but one of the papers came from a university: Brunei, East London, Ghent in Belgium, Greenwich, Nottingham, Salford, Sheffield and Surrey. The exception was a paper from Advanced Robotics Research Ltd. It was significant, and widely commented on, that the papers were virtually all from academic institutions while the delegates were all from industry. Methods and systems described in the papers were in various stages of development; none was commercially available or in industrial use. In fact, in many cases the objective behind presenting a paper at this symposium was to canvass industrial sponsorship to enable the project to continue or to bring it to market.

In the footwear industry automation is beset by tremendous difficulties. The materials are flexible, stretchable, often thin and easily damaged. Natural materials, like leather, have structural faults or blemishes which must be found and eliminated. Manufacturing processes are intricate and complex, as in the case of sewing, or variable and unpredictable, like adhesive bonding. Many disparate operations are required to produce any one item of footwear. Feet are awkward shapes and come in graded sizes. They are sensitive to poor fits and pressure points. Customers have fickle tastes and are slaves to fashion. They are critical of finish and general appearance.