Reshoring of Electric Bicycle Frame Manufacturing Through Postponement
Netzev, Metodi (2019)
2019
Industrial Engineering and Management
Tekniikan ja luonnontieteiden tiedekunta - Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2019-02-06
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201902071227
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tty-201902071227
Tiivistelmä
Bicycle manufacturers struggle to meet the seasonal demand of their products due to frame manufacturing lead times of upwards of 6 months. As such, design and testing through FEA is assessed in terms of labour hours for a proposed product development strategy. The current method of manufacturing bicycle frames within the custom geometry class is through brazing lugs and tubes. This manufacturing method requires 115 tools and 30 labour hours. By contrast, 3D printing the lugs and gluing them to carbon fibres tubes can bring the tools used to 31 and the labour hours to 9.
Overhead engineering costs have not been added to the investigation which is likely to greatly increase the price but also to add a quality component. The conclusion of the thesis points towards the technology being a promising candidate for domestic manufacturing within the European Union with the capability to reduce lead times to 3 or 4 months for 100 frames if finishing such as painting is not included. Further analysis and verification to this empirical study is needed before it can be implemented, particularly due to the novelty of the machines and materials used. The overhead engineering costs also needs further validation.
Overhead engineering costs have not been added to the investigation which is likely to greatly increase the price but also to add a quality component. The conclusion of the thesis points towards the technology being a promising candidate for domestic manufacturing within the European Union with the capability to reduce lead times to 3 or 4 months for 100 frames if finishing such as painting is not included. Further analysis and verification to this empirical study is needed before it can be implemented, particularly due to the novelty of the machines and materials used. The overhead engineering costs also needs further validation.