Introduction

Forward

This profile focuses on a Systems Engineering approach to selecting a manufacturing process for the cab design of an industrial crane.  The profile explains the management and design process, the manufacturing alternatives, and the analysis used to arrive at an optimal manufacturing process.

Overview

Grove Worldwide, which is privately owned by Keystone Inc., is a leading manufacturer of mobile hydraulic cranes and self-propelled aerial work platforms.  Its operating businesses include Grove Crane, Grove Manlift, and National Crane.

Figure 1:  Company Hierarchy

Grove Crane manufactures 4 types of mobile hydraulic cranes.

This profile deals mainly with industrial crane products; however, the results of this analysis could apply to any of the mobile hydraulic cranes.  Industrial cranes consist of equipment used at warehouses, industrial sites, construction sites, and automotive plants.  The units are small compared to other cranes with a lifting capacity ranging from 2 to 15 tons and boom lengths ranging from 8 to 52 feet.

This profile focuses on the manufacturing process of a standard cab frame design for an industrial mobile hydraulic crane, since the cab can be used as a major selling point of the machine.  The cab frame is defined as the outer shell that encloses the operator, seat, console, controls, etc…  In order to satisfy the needs of the customer and/or operator, the cab frame design is based on several human factors such as comfort, shelter, safety, and visibility.  These are all essential because a comfortable and safe operator will be more productive.

 Goals

The goal of this profile is to select a manufacturing process for the cab frame design.  Four viable manufacturing alternatives will be presented.

The alternatives will be evaluated with respect to cost, functionality, appearance, and time-to-market, and a decision table was used to analyze the alternatives.