Managing Process Variety

A continuously growing number of product variants and the configuration of globally operating production networks lead to a high number of process variants within these networks. Thus, internal complexity is added to the business. While modularization and standardization are state-of-the-art with regard to the actual product in order to manage complexity a lack of respective actions has to be considered in the field of manufacturing engineering. However, controlling these processes’ complexity and variety is a critical factor of success, too. The presented approach researches influencing factors on standardization of manufacturing engineering processes in a global network. It is based on practical experiences in the commercial vehicle industry. Taking into account different product and process related requirements an optimal degree of standardization can be deduced.