Systematic Procedure for Handling Complexity in the Automotive Production

Abstract

Volatile influences from global markets force manufacturing companies to be more flexible, innovative and efficient. Implementing these attributes in products, processes and production resources, requires a high rate of change in development periods of decreasing lengths. The increasing level of perceived complexity is a critical result of these changes. Manifold approaches were developed and studies were conducted to derive measures for complex issues. But in the industrial field, the usability of such measures poses a major challenge. In this paper, we bridge the gap between the scientific and the practical perspective on complexity and extract three basic complexity cases. On this basis, our procedure supports the systematic analysis, classification and quantification of complex issues in automotive production. The approach has been successfully applied in an industrial use case of an automotive assembly line.

Complexity drivers in manufacturing companies: a literature review

“…In the literature, more than 480 different complexity drivers were found during our research in 223 literature parts concerning complexity drivers in manufacturing companies and along the value chain. For a better understanding and overview, Schöttl, Herrmann, Maurer and Lindemann [236] suggest that complexity drivers ''have to be aggregated to a small, abstract and well-defined collection''. To increase transparency, Klagge and Blank [137], Wildemann [282], Lasch and Gießmann [155,156] and Gießmann [88] follow this approach and also separate their identified complexity drivers in different clusters according to their origin, characteristic and influences on other drivers.…”