Complexity Management in Mass Customization SMEs

AbstractAs mass customization is being widely adopted, manufacturing companies are faced with an increasing challenge of establishing and maintaining manufacturing systems with sufficient flexibility to meet customers’ diverse needs and yet be efficient enough to be competitive. This is also the case in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), which are also experiencing a demand for increased product variety. However, increased variety in the product portfolio often implies increased complexity in manufacturing costs, which combined with low manufacturing volumes in SMEs often implies that parts of the product portfolio may prove unprofitable. This is often found to be a product management issue, where complexity increases over time, as new variety is introduced in the product portfolio, not following an explicit procedure for assessing impact of increased product variety and complexity. This paper investigates the impact of excess product variety and complexity in four different SMEs, and describes experiences with using a structured approach to assessing variety and consolidating the product portfolio. The issues found in the cases are SME specific, as the volume-variety relationship as well as the organizational resources available to perform product management in relation to new product development and adaption of the product portfolio to accommodate requirements for specific customer orders

Application of Module Drivers Creating Modular Manufacturing Equipment Enabling Changeability

AbstractThe changeability of manufacturing systems can be of great importance for manufacturing companies to react rapidly and cost-effectively to market and product changes. Creating the basis for increasing the reuse and reusability of the manufacturing system then becomes critical since such capabilities would minimize the cost and/or investments that traditionally follows NPI projects and/or generally handling product variety. To accomplish the changeability of a manufacturing system one important enabler is modularity, which facilitates reusability. The basic concepts of modularity and platform architectures applied in product development can often be directly transferred to a production context though it does not necessarily imply that methods introduced as generic product modularization methods can be adopted directly with the purpose of developing modularized manufacturing systems. However, this paper adopts a method from product development literature to identify the optimal modular structure. Thus, this paper provides a methodology to apply module drivers in the design of modular manufacturing equipment, demonstrated on an industrial example

Prerequisites and Barriers for the Development of Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems for High Speed Ramp-up

AbstractIntensified global competition, fast developing technologies, and changing customer demands have resulted in a trend towards increased differences in customer requirements, increased need for customization, shorter product life cycles, shorter windows for market opportunity, and rapid new product introductions. Thus, production ramp-up is becoming a more and more important stage in the lifetime of a product, which manufacturers need to be able to handle frequently and efficiently in order to gain competitive advantage. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs) are attractive options for handling this, as the system can be continuously reconfigured in accordance with the demanded volumes and products. However, the development of the RMS is a particularly challenging task compared to the development of a traditional manufacturing system. Therefore, the aim of the research presented in this paper is to investigate prerequisites and barriers for developing reconfigurable manufacturing. Initially, the paper presents a review of current literature on reconfigurable manufacturing with an identification of the prerequisites for its implementation. Moreover, through a long-term case study, their presence and the barriers towards their adoption and development in industry are investigated. The findings suggest multiple barriers for the successful development of reconfigurable manufacturing in industry. Conclusively, these findings are discussed and considerations for future research are proposed in order to aid the transition towards reconfigurability in industry