Xinbao Liu

Title: Manufacturing Process Optimization and Life-Cycle Quality Management
Abstract:

    Magang Wheel Company is a large enterprise in China who provides the monobloc rolled steel wheel and tires of wheel of trains. The company manufactures and sells six series of products such as train wheel, tires of wheel, ring parts, wheel casting, discal parts, forging parts and so on. They have more than 2000 kinds of products, which are used in railway locomotive, machinery, shipbuilding, metallurgy, mining, aerospace, Petroleum, chemical, textile and other industries. Especially in recent years, the rapid development of railway transport is boosting demand for tires of wheel and put forward higher requests to the company's manufacturing capacity. We investigated the key scientific and technical problems from the production line of Magang Wheel Company, e.g., optimal cutting-stock technology, tire production scheduling problem, and wheel production scheduling problem. The research results were integrated into the manufacturing plan and implementation process, based on which an Intelligent Manufacturing Execution System was developed and greatly improved the production efficiency. However, the bigger challenge for the company seems to be improving the life-cycle quality in the environment of Internet of Things (IoT) and big data. With the IoT, companies can monitor real-time product operating information after selling products, and provide customers with personalized service based on this information. Customer satisfaction with this kind of service has been gradually integrated into the product quality, but it is based on the customer's willingness to establish a long-term relationship with the business. In addition, quality is not just a matter of concern between the enterprise and customer. The sustainability of the product is also a part of its quality. The acquisition and analysis of the full life cycle quality data will drive the further development of the re-manufacturing industry, which is of great importance to a product’s life-cycle quality improvement. Faced with these opportunities and challenges, we redefined the concepts of quality and quality management and proposed some new methods for quality management based on new information technology so as to promote the healthy and sustainable development of enterprises and society.

Brief  Introduction:

    Xinbao Liu is professor and doctoral supervisor at School of Management, Hefei University of Technology. He is the director of Institute of decision science and technology. His research interests include logistics and system control, decision-making science and technology, information management and decision support system, complex product manufacturing process optimization and decision-making. He has successively presided over more than 20 projects, including the national 863 project, the National Natural Science Foundation of innovation research group project and so on. He published more than 140 papers. Over the past five years, 27 papers have been published in the international journals of SCI, including European Journal of Operational Research, Journal of Operations Research Society, Annals of Operations Research, etc. He has received many awards including two second prize of National Scientific and Technological Progress Award, one first prize of the Natural Science Award of Education Ministry, one first prize of China Machinery Industry Science and Technology Progress Award, one first prize of Science and Technology Progress Award of Anhui Province, and one second prize of Natural Science Award of Anhui Province and one second prize of National Teaching Achievement Award. His main academic positions are as follows: member of mathematics and management department of Hefei University of Technology Academic Committee, secretary-General of Evaluation Committee, director of the China Society of International Information Systems, executive director of Chinese Systems Engineering Society, vice chairman of Chinese Systems Engineering Society Decision Science Committee, member of Chinese Automation Society Process Control Professional Committee, member of International Operations Research and Management Science Society, editorial board member of Prediction and some other journals, the member of "World Congress on Global Optimization", the member of "Sixth International Symposium on Behavioral Operations Research, the member of Behavior Management".