1

Introduction

Introduction

1.1
1.1.1

Motivation
Challenges in Manufacturing, Products and Service Engineering

According to a document published by the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems

Secretariat of the European Community, the following topics should be the focus
of Manufacturing, Products and Service Engineering in 2010:
Methodologies, tools, work environments for the conceptualisation, design,
make of products and services/delivery, product support
Integration of miniaturized devices and software into intelligent products
Value creation processes in manufacturing (knowledge/information flow
between suppliers and users) novel approaches to customization, logistics,
maintenance
Holistic product design/development and distribution tools and methods
Global standardization initiatives: Inter-enterprise business processes
(planning, scheduling, coordination); assuring process transparency,
traceability of produced parts, shop floor automation/security
Knowledge communities in production technologies, advances in virtual
production, supply chain and lifecycle management, decision-aid systems,
rapid manufacturing
Another publication defined a decade ago in Bollinger (1998) the Grand
Challenges for the Manufacturing in 2020 as follows:
Grand Challenge 1: Concurrent Manufacturing
Grand Challenge 2: Integration of Human and Technical Resources
Grand Challenge 3: Conversion of Information to Knowledge
Grand Challenge 4: Environmental Compatibility
Grand Challenge 5: Reconfigurable Enterprises
Grand Challenge 6: Innovative Processes

1 Introduction

Contemplating what is already achieved and what could be achieved in the near
future, we have come to a vision that shapes the spirit of the present study.
1.1.2

A Vision: Manufacturing in the Twenty-xth Century

Having a vision is not an end in itself. To have a vision means to analyse the past
and the present and try to extrapolate development in the future in order to foresee
it. The further away in the future one would like to (fore)see, the more of the past
would have to be analysed and the higher the probability that the foresight will
deviate from the reality when the considered time comes. Only those who (try to)
foresee the future can anticipate the events good or bad and forestall the
competition in dominating the market. To get the right vision is not easy, but even
a bad vision is better than no vision at all. So let us try to recall the past of
mechanical engineering, to review its present, to project ourselves into the twentyxth century of the millennium and have a look around. According to experience and
imagination, each of us will be able to imagine a very different situation. For
instance, at some point in the future the following could have happened:
I1. Material processing has become infinitely easy, cheap and fast, which
makes it affordable for everybody.
I2. There is rarely a need for pre-fabricated materials, because people have
mastered material transformation and improvement and can thus use the
surrounding widespread materials or reuse materials and the energy of
already unneeded equipment.
I3. Due to I1 and I2, (conventional) factories are not needed anymore and
are replaced by ubiquitous or home or in-place manufacturing.
I4. Due to I1, I2 and I3, warehouses are almost not needed and the use of
transport is significantly reduced, leading also to cheaper products and
to reduction of pollution.
I5. In such a situation, information and knowledge processing becomes the
most important factor in manufacturing.
How realistic is such a vision? If it is realistic, when could we (or the future
generations) expect it? In order to (try to) find answers to these questions, one has
to consider the known achievements of the science and technology and attempt to
estimate whether their further development can (at least theoretically) lead to
similar results. No matter what conclusion is drawn, the reality can be different.
Nevertheless, if we know what we would like to achieve, it is worth the effort to
make the first steps towards the accomplishment of our desires as soon as possible,
as well as to attempt to foresee and plan the remaining steps.
1.1.3

Preparing (the Technology) for the Twenty-xth Century

No doubt, the technology of the next centuries will be better than the current
technology. Nevertheless, despite different theories about giant acceleration (cf.
http://accelerating.org or http://www.accelerationwatch.com/), technological
singularity (http://www.singularitywatch.com/) and other predictions we do not
believe in sudden or very rapid changes in the technology. Even if they happen,
most of them usually have a limited influence on the technology as a whole and a
strong impact within some particular field. We firmly believe, though, in the
gradual but continuous improvement of science and technology altogether. For that

1.1 Motivation

reason, it makes sense to mention some of the promising contemporary

technologies and to contribute to their development.
1.1.3.1 Thinkable/Conceivable Technologies
Rapid Prototyping (RP)
Rapid prototyping encompasses a number of technologies for fast creation of (real
or physical) products on the basis of their 3D-models. The most popular until now
RP-technologies have been selective laser sintering (known as SLS), stereolithography, 3D-printing and others. Objects are created as numerous thin layers of
selectively hardened material having the necessary profile and created over one
another.
The most often used materials are either powder-based (ceramic, metal or
thermoplastics powder) or (photo-)polymer-based.
Intelligent Materials
According to Bullinger (2007, p. 36), intelligent (or smart) materials have the
capability to react to stimuli from the environment or changes there and to adapt
their functionality respectively. This is either directly possible or achieved through
combining sensory materials with actuating materials and a control unit. The
resulting combination is named composite material and has special properties.
Until now intelligent materials can be classified according to the main effect
they use or expose in at least five groups:
with shape memory;
with piezoelectric effect;
with electrostriction or magnetostriction;
using electro-rheology and magneto-rheology;
using chromogenic effect.
Speculating on further development, one could expect materials with
programmable (or computer-controlled) behaviour (e.g., remote form giving?) in
the (near) future.
Better Use of Energy and Resources
Energy plays key role in industry, society and private life. Its ubiquitous
availability, safety and price are factors having an enormous influence on its
usability and on everything depending on energy. There seem to be at least three
directions at the moment, offering very promising prospects energy-saving
technologies, use of regenerative energies (those of the sun, the wind, the water,
the tides/waves, etc.) and recovery/reuse of energy (e.g., from products to be
recycled or from garbage). And if their development continues, it would not be
surprising if in a couple of centuries (or decades?) people are in a position to draw
all needed energy from the nearby environment.
Transportation
Transport is still one of the factors playing a major role in processes such as people
transportation, delivery of raw material and goods, carriage/conveyance of (partly
processed) parts during their manufacturing and many others. Despite all
achievements in the area of transportation it is clear that there are many novelties

1 Introduction

still to come. And for a great improvement it is not really necessary to have the
transport technology of the spaceship Voyager there are many already existing
technologies that could bring significant improvement in the area even now like
the Levitation Railway or pipeline2 transportation. The latter could be used, for
instance, to easily deliver raw materials in fluid or powder form e.g., petroleum,
paraffin, polymers, etc., even to the ubiquitous home (nano) factories of the future.
Biotechnologies
Biotechnologies also have good prospects. Especially in combination with other
sciences they offer attractive possibilities: biomaterials; material biotransformations, bio-organization, and in the future possibly even genetically
programmed material growth (up to programming of the final form!).
1.1.3.2 Human Resources and Human-related Technologies
Having good technology alone is not enough: we need experts who know how to
handle it. In other words, no matter which technologies come to be used in the
future, it is of strategic importance that their users can really control them. This
means that, on the one hand, there should be no threats to humans or the
environment, and on the other hand, the technologies should be used efficiently. A
key factor for these two prerequisites is the ability to understand the technologies,
which in turn requires the proper qualification of the immediately involved people.
Such qualification is achieved by means of training and education, which can be
enormously improved by use of appropriate models.
There are a number of novel learning technologies (eLearning, virtual and
mixed reality, learning by playing, etc.), which have enormous potential. However,
they can be used only with appropriate models or will bring more benefit when
based on such models.

1.2

Immediate Goals and Working Areas

Assuming that we are motivated to achieve a goal, the next thing to do is to analyse
the situation and to prepare a plan for the following steps. There is no plan
proposed here, neither a detailed analysis. We simply try to share some
observations and ideas for improvements that could contribute to conceiving the
technology of the future. And the author's view at the time of writing is that our
current position/advance on the developmental spiral requires first and foremost
development and elaboration of concepts, methods, and tools for:

information and knowledge representation

conversion of information into knowledge
automated decision making
efficient product and process modelling, including reduction of the
complexity of the modelling and the resulting consequences.

Not only for fluids, but also for small containers that can be used to carry objects in them.

1.2 Immediate Goals and Working Areas

Eventually, we need highly reusable and easily integrable models. And ideally they
would be usable for anybody, at anytime and anywhere.
1.2.1

Information and Knowledge

Assume for a moment that the information and the knowledge are made of data.
Data is a fascinating material, which has one huge advantage its replication
and transportation are fast, easy and cheap. Information and knowledge inherit this
advantage from the data, but they still have to be created, which is not trivial. But
every technology is based upon knowledge, therefore, to prepare a better
technology means that society has to extend its knowledge as quickly and
thoroughly as possible. On the one hand, this means making it generally available,
efficiently representable, easily reusable and understandable. On the other hand, all
means supporting the knowledge elicitation, representation, processing, reuse, etc.,
have to come (regularly) within the focus of the development.
This book is dedicated to modelling, as it is crucial for all aspects discussed above.
1.2.2

Elaboration of the Curricula of the Future

It would not be an exaggeration to say that the technology of the future and
therewith also the future itself is forged now in the educational institutions, or
more precisely in the minds of the future generations. This means that we are
responsible for keeping the curricula in these institutions appropriate and up-todate, and for its gradual but permanent transformation into the curricula of the
Twenty-xth century.