Fuzzy Evaluation and Improvement Decision-Making Model for Machining Operation Performance

Taiwan is a major exporter and producer of machinery and machine tools in the world. There are at least hundreds of components for various machining machines. According to the concept of Taguchi loss function, when the process quality of the spare parts of machining machines is not good, the failure rate will increase after the product is sold, resulting in an increase in maintenance costs and carbon emissions. As the environment of the Internet of Things (IoT) becomes more common and mature, it is beneficial for manufacturers of machining machines to collect relevant information about process data from outsourcers, suppliers, and machining machine factories. Effective data analysis and application can help the machining machine industry move towards smart manufacturing and management, which can greatly reduce the average number of failures per unit time for all sold machines. Therefore, this paper developed a practical evaluation and improvement decision-making model for the machining operation performance to help machining machine manufacturers find out the components that often fail and improve them, so as to reduce the total loss caused by machine failures. This paper first defined the machining operation performance index for the machining machines and discussed the characteristics of this operation performance index. Subsequently, the confidence interval of the index was deduced, a fuzzy evaluation model based on this confidence interval was proposed, and decision-making rules regarding whether to make any improvement was established. The fuzzy evaluation and improvement decision-making model for the operation performance of machining machines proposed in this paper will contribute to various tool industries to boost their process quality, reduce costs, and lower carbon emissions, in order to achieve sustainable management of enterprises and the environment.