Development of a methodology for the evaluation of demand-oriented flexible manufacturing process sequences for variant-rich series production

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Thomas Bergs
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: since 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 549757578

Currently, a shortening of product life cycles and an increasing individualization of products can be observed. As a result, the requirements for components are changing and thus components often have to be adapted to changed requirements. Companies in series production are faced with the challenge of having to produce an increasing number of different component variants with different production requirements. Thus, when making investment decisions regarding new production equipment, potential future component variants must be taken into account in addition to current components. This means that a production process sequence must not be planned for a single component, but rather with future component variants being considered. This results in the demand for flexible manufacturing process sequences. In order to meet this requirement, companies must take into account the flexibility of the production process sequences with respect to future component variants in production planning. However, it is not economical to maximize the flexibility of production, since higher flexibility of the means of production is generally associated with higher investments. Therefore, a demand-oriented consideration of the flexibility, which is defined by the component variants, and an evaluation of the economic efficiency of the production including the flexibility are necessary. Furthermore, it has to be considered that the characteristics of the future component variants (e.g. technological requirements or time of occurrence) are not clearly known at the time of planning. To solve these challenges, the uncertainties have to be integrated into the planning. There is currently no approach for modelling future, potential component variants under consideration of uncertainties in order to enable an evaluation of the demand-oriented flexibility of manufacturing. Furthermore, it is not known how to implement a prognosis of the economic efficiency for the evaluation of manufacturing process sequences taking into account component variants with uncertainties. To close this research gap, a methodology is developed to enable the evaluation of demand-oriented flexible manufacturing process sequences. This objective was divided into four subgoals. In the first subgoal, a methodology is developed that enables the modelling of potential, uncertain component variants. In the second subgoal, a methodology will be developed which, based on the component variants, enables the derivation of demandoriented, flexible production process sequences. The third subgoal comprises the development of an evaluation methodology for the prognosis of the economic efficiency of manufacturing process sequences under consideration of potential, uncertain component variants. Finally, in the fourth subgoal, the three methodologies are linked to an overall methodology with the help of which a holistic design of demand-oriented flexible manufacturing process sequences can be implemented.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants