Exploring the design process of reconfigurable industrial production systems

Abstract

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.

What guides information consensus Approaching the reduction of equivocality in process innovations

“…Therefore, manufacturing managers and development teams may find the proposed framework useful in production system design projects. Accordingly, this framework could help formalise the design work process, which is characterised by ad hoc practices (Rösiö and Bruch, 2018). In addition, the proposed framework provides a structure to detail with the pre-requisites guiding information consensus in the reduction of equivocality.…”

A Literature-Based Analysis of the Cyber-Physical Systems Under the Lens of Reconfigurability

“…Regarding the need to achieve systemic goals of reconfigurability, according to literature [31,32], reconfiguring a system means changing its functionality (exploiting its convertibility) or modifying its production capacity (exploiting its scalability). Thus, modules within a system (at a certain production level) may need to be changed according to a systemic goal of reconfigurability, i.e.…”

Reconfigurable Manufacturing: A Classification of Elements Enabling Convertibility and Scalability

“…It is widely recognized that the core characteristics of reconfigurability are: modularity, integrability, diagnosabil-ity, scalability, convertibility and customization. Among them, scalability and con-vertibility are considered essential characteristics [4], [5]. Scalability, i.e.…”