I'm in the last year of Production and management engineering, and I chose to work on an arduino project for my diploma thesis. My professor asked me to work on something that suits my profession, in other words a project on a combination of arduino and supply chain (logistics). I was given another diploma thesis project as an idea on what I should I build, it's about an automation and production monitoring for industries using arduino with IoT. So, he asked me to make a research on that template and think of something. To be more specific he described an idea of using arduino with different kind of sensors during the supply chain, so that the product remains in a good condition, and the main system keeps being updated from the arduino. The problem is, I can't think of anything specific subject about it and I thought of asking around on this forum for suggestions and ideas.
I know what a production engineer or manufacturing engineer is, but I don't know what a management engineer is. (Reversing that around, I do know what an engineering manager is.)
At your school, I assume there is information on past thesis projects? Maybe you can get some ideas there.
Since this involves production, what comes to my mind is an internship at a real production company where something needs to be automated. You probably can't do production automation as a solo student. Does your school do internships?
...A lot of manufacturing/production engineering is "routine", setting-up processes & documentation similar to the existing products, and researching/solving production problems (when parts don't fit or don't work, or equipment breaks-down, or when production units start failing, or when something is taking too long, etc.). And entirely new /different product/process would be set-up by a senior engineer with experience. Something like that might make a good thesis for someone with experience has gone back to school for a Master's.
Yeah the title of my profession isn't explained to us correctly in English. But I think you are right. It is Production Engineering and Management.
I tried to find previous thesis on the current subject but couldn't find any. Although, I'm trying to figure out something specific. For example, what kind of program should the automation monitor during the supply chain etc. My professor suggested something on fragile products, but I'm trying to find something specific.
GreekInv:
Yeah the title of my profession isn't explained to us correctly in English. But I think you are right. It is Production Engineering and Management.
I tried to find previous thesis on the current subject but couldn't find any. Although, I'm trying to figure out something specific. For example, what kind of program should the automation monitor during the supply chain etc. My professor suggested something on fragile products, but I'm trying to find something specific.
My idea of a supply chain is based on electronic components. It begins with the component manufacturer, their warehousing, then shipping to a distributor and their warehouse, sale to customer, shipping to customer and finally to the customer warehouse.
You might consider a system that uses bar codes to serial number devices. Read the serial number, probably with a hand scanner, and save the new number. If a serial number is missing from the production line, make a spot in the data base for the missing number or numbers and continue with the process.
Later find the missing items, if possible, and report to management why they were missing and if they are still missing.
I can't make the link between "Production Engineering and Management" and "supply chain (logistics)".
The image in my head is that production engineering is done within something (a building, a company) whereas supply chain logisitics is the transfer of things between places and has a lot to do with management and little to do with engineering.
using arduino with different kind of sensors during the supply chain, so that the product remains in a good condition, and the main system keeps being updated from the arduino.
And I find the idea of Arduinos travelling around and reporting data to "the cloud" rather fanciful. On the one hand I suspect the communication with the cloud would be unreliable. On the other hand would you want company data to be exposed to every hacker who can access the cloud.
A good starting place for ideas is what you yourself are actually interested in - never mind the Pofessor's interests (at least to start with)
To be more specific he described an idea of using arduino with different kind of sensors during the supply chain, so that the product remains in a good condition, and the main system keeps being updated from the arduino.
Find some sort of perishable product used in manufacturing. For example, if the product has a short shelf-life, the IOT device with RTC could send warnings and blink to alert workers to use this container as soon as possible. Or something that is temperature sensitive so the IOT device can continuously send current temperature with warnings if the temperature goes out of bounds.
Yeah to be honest.. he didn't like my original idea. I wanted to build the base of a search and rescue system, using an ultrasonic sensor and a PIR, that sends the mapping on Matlab.. But he didn't like the idea, cause he believes it's too advanced and it doesn't cover my professor fully.. He said that my original idea is good for a Master's thesis but not for this one. That why he suggested an arduino system that is installed inside the shipment.
I was going to add to Reply #4 that a big part of being an effective professional engineering manager is being able to convince your Professor that your idea for a thesis is a good one.
Of course that does require you to have a good idea
If it's inside the shipment - easy to monitor temperature and vibration/shock (being dropped or ran into a wall by the lift truck driver) and send a report using radio (IoT) or a text message with a cell phone type card (for extra credit maybe add GPS location - but getting GPS to work in a box inside a cooler might be tough) - (also sending test from inside a box might also be an issue) - - send a report of the condition of the shipment from time to time with values and if something goes outside permitted values an alarm - remember to log the values and time stamp
depends a bit on how real world (inside a metal box or on the table in the lab)
they do make shipping tattletales off the shelf - the last ones I looked at were all after the fact with the reporting and some for shock were one shot in the case of a shock that was too large
Good luck -- I would have never got the advanced degree for lack of thoughts for a project but was good at making things in the plant run
GreekInv:
a project on a combination of arduino and supply chain (logistics).
The Arduino should be the means, not the destination.
Think of a project, some automation project, then come up with the suitable tool. It may be an Arduino, it may be something else. Requiring the Arduino in it is the wrong way of choosing a project.
Recently there's been quite a discussion here on tracking how shipments are treated along the way, recording location, time, accelleration/shock, etc. The Arduino is a great tool for that, maybe suitable for you as well.
As I understand the question of your professor, it is first and foremost a pretext for implementing technologies that you will encounter everywhere on the production sites. And arduinos are a cheap plateform for experimenting.
Although it's not revolutionary, predictive maintenance all along a production line may be a good subject since a failure costs a lot of money in production. Furthermore, predictive maintenance is necessary whatever the production type.
Collecting data from production machines (detect excess heat, abnormal vibrations...) could be a job for arduinos. You could use a CAN bus with more than a hundred nodes.
