Smart factories are the way forward in the manufacturing sector. Less wastage of material has become the need of the hour as resources have become very scarce. Low cost processes giving zero wastage and at the same time imparting good quality to the products are a necessity now not only for us, but for the environment as well.
To revamp the manufacturing sector, Prof. Balkrishna C. Rao from the Department of Engineering Design, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India, is pioneering all his efforts in the direction of what is known as frugal manufacturing.
Frugal manufacturing is a sub class of frugal engineering. The aim of this type of manufacturing is to reduce wastage to zero while using low-cost processes producing quality products. Although frugal manufacturing can be undertaken in any job shop/factory, the advent of smart factories makes effective application of the concept. Smart factories, which are integral to Industry 4.0, will become increasingly popular in the future. Frugal engineering in general and, frugal manufacturing in particular, are based on the factor of frugality. The factor of frugality based upon the factor of safety aids utmost reduction of waste while producing quality products at low cost.
Another aspect of frugal manufacturing that must be appreciated is that it uses less number of processes with the aim of eventually using a single process resulting in zero waste. This helps in reducing the amount of machinery and tools used to manufacture products. Also, the products manufactured by frugal manufacturing are of a high quality. Because less resources and less machinery is used, less greenhouse gases are emitted thus benefitting the environment.
Frugal manufacturing also concentrates on net finished shapes (NFSs) as opposed to near net shapes (NNSs) which means that every process in frugal manufacturing leads to a 100 percent finished product.
Frugal manufacturing can be used in any factory by smart people. It can be used in industries such as aerospace, aviation, healthcare, vehicles, etc. This type of manufacturing can also help in crisis situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic because less labour and materials are used in these efforts. It was used to produce face shields, hand wash stations, testing equipment, and respiratory support equipment to help for this cause.
Prof. Balkrishna C. Rao himself has stressed on the importance of moving forward from Industry 4.0 towards frugal manufacturing and smart factories by giving the following quote which was published in PIB Chennai: “Manufacturers seek to lower costs to stay profitable, and the conventional way of doing this has usually been by increasing the scale of production. With the irreversible interrelated phenomena of climate change, the decline in biodiversity and population growth facing the world, there has also been awareness of the need for frugal ways of consumption. Accordingly, there is now a shift in manufacturing philosophy from bigger-is-better to frugal-is-better, and zero waste products and processes have been increasingly gaining attention in recent years.”
Frugal manufacturing is a method that would suit India well because of the inherently Indian ability of frugality. The potential savings in resources, energy, emissions, and hence, costs while using a minimum number of processes to design quality parts should be harnessed by blanket application of frugal manufacturing. By incorporating frugal manufacturing as another pillar, smart factories’ efficacy in making manufacturing green would be enhanced.
Prof. Koushik Viswanathan, from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India, acknowledged the importance of this paper by giving the following comments: “We’re now seeing the advent of two competing forces in product realization– on the one hand are stringent norms for ensuring economic and environmental sustainability, while on the other hand, there is a constantly growing need for customization and increased production. The idea of a factor of frugality, that the author has utilized in this recent article, provides a quantitative framework within which one can easily evaluate the frugality of a sequence of processes culminating in a final part shape. Of particular interest are the various case study calculations discussed in the paper, ranging from conventional metal cutting and casting to more emergent processes such as metal additive manufacturing and superfinishing. This framework certainly provides a quantitative method for evaluating sustainability that should find widespread use.”
Article by Akshay Anantharaman
Here is the original link to the paper:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.210375
