Manufacturing Organisation: Systems and Benefits

The assignment requires students to write a review article on manufacturing organisation and its benefits, while also using CES software to evaluate the environmental impact of a product. The review article should address topics such as efficiency, quality control, and materials selection, while also considering whole-life issues like manufacture, transport, use, and disposal/end-of-life. Additionally, students are required to write a report on the CES Eco-Audit Tool, discussing its functions, variables, data usage, and material/manufacturing process selection.

DEPT OF COMPUTING, ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY
PLEASE READ ALL INSTRUCTIONS AND INFORMATION CAREFULLY.
Please ensure that you retain a duplicate of your assignment. We are required to send samples
of student work to the external examiners for moderation purposes. It will also safeguard in
the unlikely event of your work going astray.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION You are required to submit your work within the bounds of the
University Infringement of Assessment Regulations (see your Programme Guide). Plagiarism,
paraphrasing and downloading large amounts of information from external sources, will not be
tolerated and will be dealt with severely. Although you should make full use of any source
material, which would normally be an occasional sentence and/or paragraph (referenced)
followed by your own critical analysis/evaluation. You will receive no marks for work that is not
your own. Your work may be subject to checks for originality which can include use of an
electronic plagiarism detection service. Where you are asked to submit an individual piece of
work, the work must be entirely your own. The safety of your assessments is your
responsibility. You must not permit another student access to your work. Where referencing is
required, unless otherwise stated, the Harvard referencing system must be used (see your
Programme Guide).
PART 1.
Manufacturing: Economics, Quality and Organisation
Part 1 contributes 50% of the marks allocated to this assignment.
1.1. Introduction
Modern manufacturing plants are highly efficient, well-organised outfits. Their profitability
relies on this efficient organisation and the perceived quality of their products.
1.2. Question
For this assignment, you must write a review article entitled:
“Manufacturing Organisation: Systems and Benefits” In this assignment you should discuss
the current thinking on how manufacturing processes can be organised to maximise benefits
(e.g. in terms of quality and efficiency)
In completing the assignment, you should research the topic fully. Consult the library and the
web to find books and articles (e.g. academic journal papers, magazine/newspaper articles,
conference papers etc) which will help to inform your discussion. You should list your
literature/reference sources at the end of your review. The work submitted must be in your
own words. For instance, you should not paste large chunks of other people’s words into your
own work, though it is acceptable to quote relatively small extracts. The source of all quotes
and other pasted extracts (e.g. diagrams – it is acceptable to scan or paste diagrams) should be
clearly acknowledged in the “Harvard” referencing style (e.g. Smith, 2008) where the surname

of the first author and date of publication is given in your text. The full list of such references
should be given at the end of your review with articles listed in alphabetical order of authors.
1.3. Structure
Your article should be 2500 ± 300 words in length. A suitable structure could be:
1. Introduction: This should be a brief introduction to the topic which describes the basic
background to the ideas of quality and manufacturing organisation and outlines the aims and
objectives of the assignment. Around 300 words.
2. Manufacturing Organisation: This is your literature review of the field of manufacturing
organisation. Here the ideas of how manufacturing is organised (e.g. factory layout) should be
discussed. Around 1200 words.
3. The Benefits of Manufacturing Organisation: This is the “integrating” part of your article.
Essentially you need to discuss the effects, benefits and problems of using organisation
systems. Bear in mind that while effective factory organisation bring benefits, they may also
bring disadvantages. Around 1000 words.
(You may choose to integrate Sections 2 and 3 if this suits you better)
4. List of References: Harvard Style. List alphabetically by author surname.
e.g. Naveh. E., Marcus, A. (2004). "When does ISO 9000 Quality Assurance standard lead to
performance improvement?” IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 51(3), 352–363.
Note that the above structure is not compulsory. It would also make sense to structure as
follows:
1. Introduction: This should be a brief introduction to the topic which describes the basic
background to the ideas of quality and manufacturing organisation and outlines the aims and
objectives of the assignment. Around 300 words.
2. Manufacturing Organisation for Efficiency: See 1st list of keywords below. Around 1000
words.
3. Manufacturing Organisation for Quality: See 2nd list of keywords below. Around 1000
words
4. Conclusions: Around 200 words.
5. List of References: Harvard Style. List alphabetically by author surname.
1.4. Keywords
To make your literature search easier, some appropriate keywords are listed below:

Manufacturing Organisation (Efficiency):
Manufacturing Organisation Manufacturing Systems Factory Organisation Cellular
Manufacturing Just in Time Kanban Lean Manufacturing Inventory Management/Control 5S
[These quality-related keywords might also prove useful:
Manufacturing Organisation (Quality):
Quality Control Quality Assurance Quality Systems Quality Management Six Sigma Kaizen Total
Quality Management (TQM) ISO 9000 Statistical Process Control (SPC)]
These keywords are not exhaustive – there will be other relevant ones. You will also find that
searching on one keyword inevitably brings up references to others, since they are linked.
PART 2.
Part 2 contributes 50% of the marks allocated to this assignment.
CES Software – Eco-Audit Tool
(You should already have CES Edupack 2015 software installed on your PC/Laptop. If not, it is
available from the IT Helpdesk, DGIC).
CES is a software tool which acts as a large database on materials and manufacturing process
technologies. It also allows for informed materials and manufacturing process selection. As
part of the materials and manufacturing process selection methodology, the environmental
impact of such choices can be evaluated. This is done by the integrated “Eco-Audit Tool”.
The aim of the eco audit tool within CES is to enable product designers to quickly evaluate the
environmental impact of their product, and to provide guidance on how to reduce it. This is
achieved by focusing on two well-understood environmental stressors: energy usage and CO2
footprint, and identifying which of the main life phases (material, manufacture, transport, use,
and end-of-life) is most demanding.
Your Task
2.1 Preliminary
2.1.1 Open CES and load the Level 2 database. 2.1.2 Open “CES Help”

2.1.3. From the “Contents” window, expand the Eco-Audit Tool menu
4 You will see the Eco-Audit tool within CES described in detail in various sections listed in the
expanded menu.
2.2 Report
Write a report entitled: The Use of the CES Eco-Audit Tool in Developing Strategies for
Reducing the Environmental Impact of a Product. In your answer, make sure you address:

2.2.1. The basic functions and variables considered by the Eco-Audit tool in its application. 2.2
2. The nature of the data used. 2.2.3. Whole-life issues (e.g. Manufacture, Transport, Use and
Disposal/Endof-Life). 2.2.4. Material and manufacturing process selection.
Your report can contain as many CES screen shots as you feel are necessary. Credit will be
given for a well-structured, well-presented and wellresearched report. Use the Harvard style of
referencing throughout.
Overall, your report should be in the 1000 -15000 word range (not including references).