Autor: Herwig Winkler

Assembly is an important part of industrial production and is also characterized by a high proportion of manual work. Manufacturing companies have an intrinsic interest in increasing personnel productivity and preventing unit labor costs from rising. Many thus hope to gain economic benefits by implementing digitalization projects. The potential of digitalization in assembly must be exploited to achieve these goals.

A German study from the ifaa-trendbarometer shows that approximately 80 % of the interviewed experts assign the “Continuous Improvement Process” (CIP) a high or very high priority for the success in the “shop floor” [1]. The sustainable implementation of the CIP into an existing production system and the continuous use of CIP in daily business are associated with multifarious problems. This presents a major challenge for many companies in their operational production management. The following case study introduces a planning model, which considers the usual practical problems and helps for an appropriate approach in three phases to the CIP.

In recent decades the maintenance has experienced a continuous change in the industry by the requirements and thus their influence has risen to the production system. But every industry and every production process is affected differently from it. In this paper, therefore, the most recent developments in the maintenance be excerpted from current studies and transferred into the automotive industry, specific into the supplier industry with screen printing products. Previously we created from current studies for the changing meaning of maintenance a cause-effect diagram. In order to raise the perception of the maintenance change in the industry, we conducted subsequently by an expert survey. From this we were able to describe deriving effects on the production system and the formulation of future research needs.

European companies which are producing on customers demand, have to face a highly turbulent competitive environment. The main challenges are short production cycles, high customer requirements, globalisation as well as competitors from developing countries. A solution to the resulting high dynamic and complexity are cooperative management approaches like supply chain management and the set up of specific flexibility potentials.