The packaging of manufactured products attracts relatively little attention
from research or benefits from the opportunities available through conditi
on monitoring. The technical requirements of packaging can easily be undere
stimated in the overall production process. A widely used method of reducin
g waste relies upon the knowledge of an experienced mechanic to set up the
machine before production runs and to correct misalignments should problems
occur. This approach has the following drawbacks: non-availability of expe
rtise, the relevant practical experience takes time to acquire and the redu
ced staffing levels present in the current economic climate. This study aim
s to develop an efficient, hybrid method for capturing the machine informat
ion, by means of fuzzy logic to decode the intelligence supplied from an RT
CM system. Developed from the min-max fuzzy inference method, the present a
pproach replaces the maximum selection technique for output set truncation,
by a matrix of truncation values derived from all rule outcomes. A suitabl
y generic method has been employed allowing the developed techniques to be
utilised for a wide range of manufacturing problems. The work has lent supp
ort to the use of fuzzy condition monitoring as a reliable and inexpensive
means of reducing wastage and maintenance overheads in the packaging indust
ry. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.