is an open access repository that collects the work of Arts et Métiers ParisTech researchers and makes it freely available over the web where possible. Summary A flexible cable is modeled by a geometrically exact beam model with 3D rotations described using quaternion parameters. The boundary value problem is then discretized by the finite element method. The use of an asymptotic numerical method to solve the problem, requiring quadratic equations, is well suited to the quaternion parametrization. This combination of methods leads to a fast, robust and accurate algorithm very well-adapted for the simulation of the assembly process of cables. This is proved by running many examples involving complicated solutions.

International audienceCurrent manufacturing industries are experiencing a paradigm shift towards more flexibility to respond quickly and efficiently to constant changing customers' requirements, new technologies and increasing product variety. Product flexibility is the ability of the manufacturing system to cope with the growing product variety to ensure better system performance. The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of product-resources interfaces in product flexibility assessment. Based on industrial experience, three product flexibility inductors are identified, which are gripping, setting and tooling interfaces, in order to build indicators as close as possible to real industry conditions. This research work investigates new factors to quantify product flexibility and provide manufacturing system designers with efficient decision-making support tools. In order to show the relevance of our approach, experimental results from the automotive industry are presented

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The mirroring hypothesis is central to modularity theory, positing isomorphism between technical interdependencies of a product and organizational arrangements. When a product’s design becomes more modular, a full mirroring response would change both its manufacturing and its supply chain. We evaluate this prediction for Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs), observing whether automakers have mirrored the modular BEV architecture in either internal production processes, external sourcing arrangements, or both. Our data from 19 automakers show that, to date, BEVs are manufactured in their assembly plants alongside conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). New automakers with fully BEV plants utilize essentially the same production process. Furthermore, automakers make—or ally to make—key Electric Vehicle (EV) systems, rather than outsourcing them. We discuss the implications of this partial mirroring for modularity theory and ask whether these arrangements will persist once BEV sales surpass ICEVs.