An approach framework supporting manufacturing system design for a range of product

Abstract

Mass customization and the evolution of products provide significant challenges to manufacturing system designers. Paradigms such as changeability, product process co-evolution and product platform development have been developed over the years to tackle these challenges. This research work identifies the synthesis decision-making activity in manufacturing system design to be a critical aspect of the development cycle, since many factors have to be taken into consideration. These include technical factors such as machine capability, but also uncertainty due to changing business and product elements. This research therefore aims to provide manufacturing system designers with an insight of the consequences of synthesis decisions on the range of products that can be manufactured by the evolving manufacturing system by contributing a manufacturing capability measure based on product range capability.