Introduction
Today’s fast-changing global markets and decreasing productlifecycles are forcing a philosophical shift in manufacturingindustries. The approach to manufacturing is quickly moving awayfrom pure mass production to mass customization. In order to riseto the challenge of these emerging trends, new plant structures andproduction facility operation methods are necessary. Futureproduction facilities need to be flexible, adaptable and allowfast, changes all at little cost. Today’s flexible productionsystems already provide the mechanisms for producing differentproducts in the same plant. However this flexibility comes withhigh cost. First of all such plants have higher initial costscompared to standard plants. But what is even more important, theyincorporate a high operational cost because of down-times neededfor adapting to new products or because of breakdowns in the plant(e.g., continuous processes with long rampup times). Therefore,means are necessary that provide flexibility without the need tostop the production.
Product Details
- Edition:
- 09
- Published:
- 01/01/2009
- Number of Pages:
- 288
- File Size:
- 1 file , 1.6 MB
