Adequate and economic factory transformability and the effects on logistical performance

Abstract

Objective-oriented factory planning is a prerequisite for the economic operation of a factory. As intensive discussions in the literature as well as practical findings in factories over the years show, transformability and logistics are among the key objectives of a factory. It is striking, however, that both objectives have not so far been related to each other. Based on these findings, a method for evaluating the actual as well as the target transformability of a factory has been developed. It allows the user to assess whether the factory possesses adequate and economic transformability. In order to make the method more manageable for users in practice, a software tool is presented, and a benchmarking has been derived from the data collected by evaluating factory transformability. In addition, it has been found that transformability can influence logistics. A procedure will be presented that allows major means of adjustment to be found that improve the logistics objectives of a factory by using transformability. Finally, the outlook for future developments is discussed.

Reconfigurable Manufacturing: A Classification of Elements Enabling Convertibility and Scalability

“…Indeed, operators and machines should be provided or designed (in case of machines) in a way that allows future conversions to new requirements. Specifically, manual workstations rely on operators' versatile skills [7], [17]. Conversely, to facilitate future conversions of highly automated workstations with complex and partitioned architectures, machines' control interfaces should be designed for easy integration to newly introduced tools/machines [13].…”

“…However, in previous research, these characteristics have predominately been addressed on rather abstract levels with only limited consideration of the manu-facturing elements that enhance these characteristics, their inherent relations, and how they can actually be realized in manufacturing [13]- [15]. In this regard, recon-figurability is increasingly being promoted as a multi-dimensional and complex ca-pability that can be designed and implemented specifically for different manufactur-ing contexts, by exploiting relationships between core characteristics and/or enablers [13], [14] at multiple manufacturing levels [16], [17]. Therefore, in order to support practitioners in realizing the potentials of reconfigurability and design appropriate manufacturing solutions that realize reconfigurability, it is important to consider not only structural aspects that enable scalability and convertibility but also their manu-facturing levels of realization.…”

“…operational resources and processes) and spatial aspects (i.e. floor and ground areas) [17]. Managerial elements (ME) refer to logical elements, operation-al rules, organizational policies, and IT support for the management of technical systems [10], [17], e.g.…”

Framework to Implement Collaborative Robots In Manual Assembly: A Lean Automation Approach

“…For the purpose of defining factory objects Nyhuis [25], classified the factory objects as means, space and organization and placed them at four different levels of station, system, segment and site levels. However, this research will focus only on the technical requirements at the station level.…”

“…However, this research will focus only on the technical requirements at the station level. The means, organization and space in this classification refer to production equipment, operational structure and workspace design respectively [25].…”