Autor: Thorsten Blecker

Changeability has become a buzzword for operations management, especially in German literature. Management of changeability, in contrast, has not yet been considered in practice or in literature sufficiently. The article presents an actors oriented approach for the management of changeability that enables a better composition and maintenance of change potentials in operation sys-tems. Change potentials are the unused abilities and relationships of actors and build up the changeability of an operation system. The management of changeability has to take care of these potentials for using i hemin the change process.

Due to heterogeneous standards of information systems in many indus-trial firms the planning- and execution systems are unconnected or incompatible. Therefore, Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) combine ERP-, PDM/EDM- and automation systems. However, simultaneously an increase of the in-house usage of internet technologies in production occurs, such as active technologies, web service and industrial frame- works. They allow new production systems and concepts, driven by the direct, IP-based networking of all information and automation systems. Consequently, the general conditions of MES changes.

Today, in many industries the customer demands on products and services change rapidly. Most customers expect individualized products at simultaneously low costs and delivery times. Therefore, many enterprises attempt the strategy of Mass Customization (MC). The result is a variant-rich production process which causes complex prerequisites for the enterprises. This contribution shows an infrastructure for the transfer of customer specifications in the MC.