An Expert System For Flexible Manufacturing System

The need for a new Quality Control approach has risen recently especially whendealing with automated systems in industry. The high cost of automatedmanufacturing systems requires a good quality control system that would improveproduction, reduce the number of scrapped products and help fast decision makingwhen deviations from accepted quality levels occur. The situation becomes morecomplicated when dealing with Flexible Manufacturing Systems (FMS). Thosesystems are known for their capability to produce different types of products inmoderate quantities. This in its turn requires an effective and flexible quality controlsystem.This research studies the development of an Expert Quality Control System (EQCS)that is based on the available computer technology in flexible manufacturing. Thepurpose of EQCS is to help quality engineers diagnose deviations from requiredquality requirements, and to take the right decisions to improve the process and yieldproduct quality. The proposed EQCS is composed of two main parts:Part One:Main program that would receive product specifications and subsequently makethe necessary calculations to plot the corresponding quality control charts (Rand X-bar Charts) for the considered characteristic. The program then analyzesthe results based on a set of predefined rules to decide whether it is withinquality control limits or not.Part two:Expert System, which relies on a set of quality control rules, established by aleading US company as well as information related to the productionenvironment at this company. The Expert System receives information directlyfrom part one and also asks questions about the production environment. In thisway it helps the quality engineer to properly diagnose the reasons of the out ofcontrol situation and also helps him find the best corrective actions.