This document summarizes a master's thesis on optimizing material flow in a lean manufacturing environment. It describes the components of a material flow system including automatic storage and retrieval systems, programmable logic controllers, sensors, and conveyor systems. It then outlines the methodology, which involved simulating the material flow process from raw materials to finished goods using factory IO simulation software. Test results found the optimized design utilized 60% of available floor space, allowed for 40% expansion, and included 3 cranes, 3 robots, and 54 storage positions across 6 stackers to process 3 batches of products. The conclusion states that material flow optimization is important for industry, and future work could explore mobile data access and condition-based monitoring of devices.

1. MATERIAL FLOW OPTIMIZATION IN
A LEAN ENVIRONMENT
Presented by: Chukwuma Chukwunweike
Joseph
Supervisor: Lifford McLauchlan, Ph.D. Interim
Department Chair (EECS) and Committee Chair
Major: Mechatronics Engineering
Masters Thesis Research

2. VITA
Madonna University – Bachelor of Engineering in Electrical and Electronic Engineering
GateWay Power and Controls Limited – Technical Associate
Smartflow Technologies Limited – Team Lead Automation Engineer
Honeywell Flour Mills PLC – Electrical Supervisor
Tesla Inc – Co-op Control Engineer, Material Flow Engineering

3. OUTLINE
Introduction
Components of a Material Flow System
Methodology
Results and Analysis
Conclusion

4. INTRODUCTION – THESIS MOTIVATION
Data Collation Internet of Things
Process
Optimization
Reduction of
human interaction
with processes
Automated
Process

5. COMPONENTS OF
A MATERIAL
FLOW SYSTEM
Automatic Storage And Retrieval System
Programmable Logic Ocntroller
Electric Motors
Conveyor sytems
Variable Frequency drives (Motor Controller)
Sensors
Open Platform Communication (OPC)

6. AUTOMATIC STORAGE
AND RETRIEVAL
SYSTEM
Various aspects of this system
 Automatic storage system
 Automatic retrieval system
 The Load handler
 The extension forks
 X, Y and Z axis motor
 Distance sensor
 Drag chain or inductive power
technology for power
transmission

7. PROGRAMMABLE
LOGIC CONTROLLER
Features of a PLC
 Digital Input and Output ports
 Analog Input and Output ports
 Communication Protocols (Profinet,
Profisafe, TCP/IP [Modbus, Ethernet]
 Modbus RTU

8. ELECTRIC MOTORS AND CONVEYORS

9. VARIABLE
FREQUENCY
DRIVE
Advantages of VFD over other conventional starters:
 Energy Saving
 Easy of control in terms of speed and braking
 Limit starting current is about 150% as compared to a direct online system
that is at 600%
 Smooth operation which also reduces thermal and mechanical stress.
 High power factor
 Ease of Installation

10. SENSORS
 Inductive sensors
 Capacitive sensors
 Retroreflective sensors
 Diffuse sensors
 Optical sensors
 Proximity sensors
 Vision Sensors
 RFID sensors
 Barcode scanners

11. METHODOLOGY
 Understanding the factory layout of the material flow system involving
the batch of products to be populated for storage
 Factory IO simulation software was used for the simulation of the material
flow process from the raw material phase to the processed materials.
 This implementation requires a full automated system and for this
purpose a siemens PLC controller was used
 Code was written In ladder logic and the communication between factory
IO and PLC sim was done using structured control language (SCL).
 RFID tags and Tags readers were used for tracking and identification on
parts.
 Color detection sensors was used to identify individual parts and decision
was made based on this color sequences

12. RESULTS AND
ANALYSIS
Design consideration for Factory
IO
 Floor space of 35.8m by 53.4
 Scope was to manufacture,
package, store and retrieve
materials.
 For optimization and future
expansion, floor space
utilization was 60% giving
room of 40% for expansion
 3 batches of product is
produced and stored

13. CONTINUED
3 crane requirement for moving parts around the stackers
3 robots for raw material handling
Vision sensors for color sorting of material
Conveyor and turn tables for moving parts around
Control panel for manual pallet retrieval from stackers
54 storage positions for the stackers
6 stackers having a total of 2 stackers per crane.

14. RAW MATERIAL INFEED STATION

15. BATCH OF
PRODUCTS
SENT IN FOR
MACHINING

16. MACHINING CENTRE

17. OUTCOME OF
MACHINE RAW
MATERIALS

18. MARRIAGE CENTRE
1. Emitter for stackable box with RFID tag
2. Emitter for product lid
3. Right positioner, and Two-axis Pick & Place
4. Right positioner, pallet emitter and Two-axis Pick & Place

19. CONTINUED

20. CONTINUED

21. AUTOMATED STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL SYSTEM

22. RETRIEVAL PANEL

23. DATA RECORDED DURING CYCLE RUN

24. DESIGN CONSIDERATION FOR MINIATURE STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
RACK

25. CONCLUSION
 Material flow optimization is a major factor in every industry.
Design should not be so complex and complicated. The simpler
and basic a design is the better. For all system design, cycle time
should be optimized and for this to be achievable, a process should
have only what is needed. Speed of system operation and fault
resolution is very important during the design phases of every
system. Too much speed leads to wear and tear of equipment and
as such durable materials should be used during implementation
and design.

26. FUTURE WORKS
 For the medium scale storage racks, it would be of greater advantage to add more buffer spots with more precise
actuators (valves and actuating arms) to hold stored parts in place. Data tracking will be better handled by a dedicated
Storage and Retrieval software/database, this will prevent loss of data in the cases where PLC crashes or data is
forcefully over written.
 Data management and analysis is a very important aspect of production in the 21st century and the ability to be able to
pull data, analyze data and store data is an important factor of this process. From my thesis, it became clearer to me
the role Siemens play in the making of most of these data control, storage and retrieving processes. and with various
function blocks and logics data collation becomes very easy and accessible.
 For future work, it will be important to look at pulling production data over a mobile device, write accessible tags that
will give users control to start or stop the storage process, and make orders to be processed through the mobile app.
One of the futuristic aspects will be to implement condition-based monitoring for all device just to have a status trend
on the health of all the devices.

27. QUESTIONS

28. THANKS