Reconfigurable Manufacturing: A Case-Study of Reconfigurability Potentials in the Manufacturing of Capital Goods

Part 1: Lean ProductionInternational audienceThe capital goods industry supplies highly volatile marketplaces with products customized to increase product performance and reduce operating costs. Consequently, an order winning criteria for capital goods manufacturers is to quickly and effectively reconfigure supply and manufacturing systems to suit ever changing product and volume requirements within short time frames. In order to clarify such potentials of reconfigurability, this paper presents a case study on reconfigurability potentials in a large capital goods company. The framework applied for this relates reconfigurability drivers with different production levels and purposes. The findings suggest that local content and sub-contracting requirements are main drivers for the potential application of reconfigurability on network level, being reinforced by reconfigurability on system and equipment level. Thus, the paper extends previous research on reconfigurability and addresses potentials beyond shop floor level in a multi-dimensional approach