Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore activities, challenges, and suggest tactics for the design of industrial reconfigurable production systems that can easily adapt to changing market opportunities. Design/methodology/approach The paper synthesizes the empirical findings of seven case studies including 47 in-depth interviews at four manufacturing companies. Findings A conceptual production system design process and including activities that enables a long-term perspective considering reconfigurability is proposed. Additionally, critical challenges indicating that reconfigurable production system design is not a trivial issue but one that requires separate control and coordination are identified and tactics to overcome the challenges described. Research limitations/implications The authors propose a process for designing reconfigurable production systems that are better suited to adjust to future needs. The knowledge of reconfigurability from the reconfigurable manufacturing system literature is applied in the general production system literature field. This study contributes to a clearer picture of managerial challenges that need to be dealt with when designing a reconfigurable production system. Practical implications By clarifying key activities facilitating a long-term perspective in the design process and highlighting challenges and tactics for improvement, the findings are particularly relevant to production engineers and plant managers interested in increasing the ability to adapt to future changes through reconfigurability and improve the efficiency of their production system design process. Originality/value Although reconfigurable production systems are critical for the success of manufacturing companies, the process of designing such systems is not clear. This paper stretches this by giving a comprehensive picture of the production system design process and the activities that need to be considered to meet these challenges.

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore theoretical and practical challenges to achieve reconfigurable production system designs. Design/methodology/approach -The empirical material of this paper includes a multiple-case study with an embedded design (Yin) including four cases, where each case represents a production system design project. The consideration of reconfigurability and its characteristics in the production system design projects was studied. To enhance validity, two real-time studies were combined with two retrospective studies (Leonard-Barton). Findings -For more than a decade foresight reports have pointed out the need for responsiveness to change through reconfigurability in production system design. In order to achieve reconfigurable production systems, three challenges were identified: to use a structured design methodology, to gain knowledge in reconfigurability and its characteristics, and to include the reconfigurability knowledge in a structured design methodology. Still there is no comprehensive support available for reconfigurability in the production system design process. Research limitations/implications -Limitations are mostly related to the chosen methodology approach, and additional empirical studies to establish generic results are required. Practical implications -By combining knowledge from the production system design field with the reconfigurable manufacturing system field a potential of meeting identified challenges is pointed out. Originality/value -This paper adds to current knowledge by pointing out three main challenges to achieving reconfigurable production systems. The paper also contributes with ideas on how to respond to these challenges.

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This paper deepens the understanding of the lead factory concept by examining how the lead factory role is operationalised and what challenges are associated with it. The research is based on an explorative case study of eight Swedish lead factories in the manufacturing industry. The empirical findings suggest that the understanding of the lead factory concept should be extended as it is not restricted to one type of set-up. The findings show a spectrum ranging from an entire manufacturing plant, parts of a plant, to a virtual plant considered to be the lead factory. The research also shows a broad range of challenges experienced by lead factories. Several of these are related to and originate from unclear role, responsibility and mandate of the lead factory. The lack of dedicated resources for lead factory activities, specifically long-term development and difficulties in measuring the benefits of the role, were other challenges faced.

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