Factory Planning

Cooperation between German and Chinese companies is rare considering the potential for growth in China. However, not only in industry but also at university barriers of intercultural cooperation occur between Germans and Chinese. Against this background, case studies can be applied in teaching not only technical knowledge, but also intercultural competences. In this context, deficiencies in intercultural cooperation can be identified and successfully overcome.

Manufacturing companies are operating in a turbulent environment, which leads to a higher need for factory replanning. Typically, factory planning activities are carried out as projects. All projects are competing for limited resources. An appropriate coordination between the individual projects and coordination with the daily business increases efficiency and effectiveness. This paper presents multi-project management as a possible approach to the sharing of resources in factory planning.

The impact of industrial production on the climate is discussed in science, but also in politics. Adaptation to the impacts of climate change, such as better flood protection, is also examined. The aspects of manufacturing companies have been considered inadequately. Classical approaches of factory planning take climatic conditions only for location finding into account. Here the climate is considered to be static, when dynamic influence quantity. This has the consequence that the risk of climate change impacts in the planning of factories is not considered. In this paper, an approach to identify and highlight the growing risks is described.

To remain competitive in a globalized market, enterprises must consider sustainably aspects. The classic aims of quality, costs and time are extended by aspects of the ecological, economic and social quality. The challenge to cope with these new dimensions aiming at long term success is raised by the turbulent influences in a global market with varying demands. A new factory typology, the so called urban factory, pursues the aim to exhaust the potentials of an interlinking of factory and town efficiently. The aim of this topology is to improve the competitive situation of enterprises. In this case the synergetic use of material and energy sources is in focus.

Especially manufacturing companies with small-scale structures are increasingly faced with the task to adapt their manufacturing systems on rapidly changing production programs in terms of functional and economic criteria. What is given in large-scale companies as continuous rules by installed comprehensive production systems (CPS), such an improvement is organized highly case-spezific in small-scale companies by the owner. The Ing.-Holzbau Schnoor GmbH &Co KG reacts on described changes by means of an intelligent use of industrial engineering methods: The miniCPS @ Schnoor.

The layout planning represents a prime example of the interdisciplinary nature of factory planning. A comprehensive cooperation provides opportunities to involve ideas and experiences of as many people as possible, to exploit synergies, to realize a faster coordination of the planning status between the departments and thus improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the planning process. The development of more powerful computer technology and the increasing popularity of mobile devices (e.g. smartphones, tablet computers) provide new potentials and possibilities for the use of Augmented Reality (AR) in the application field of factory planning. This paper describes an approach for the application of AR in participative layout planning.

An actual study about potentials and needs of action in the range of factory planning projects shows clearly that the used process models can’t handle the dynamic and the complexity in these projects. For this reason, the University of Applied Science Landshut has been developing within the Landshuter Produktionssystem (LPS): CLean Production - Lean & Clean a new factory planning methodology. This allows for the first time to design the factory structures from beginning based on lean criteria in connection with the planning and control. The method will also satisfy the requirements referred because of an agile process model.

The increasing turbulence in enterprises environment becomes apparent by rising variant diversity and continuously reducing product life cycles. These results cause immense and not resolvable adaption necessities for producing companies. The approach of network factories combines system immanent and network bounded potentials to increase adaption alternatives, reduce adaption risks, and optimize agility.

Due to an increasing cost pressure especially big companies decided in recent years to implement a lean production system. However, the majority does not meet their expectations regarding the overall performance. An actual study confirms the companies´ dissatisfaction. There is a lack of structured and systematic approaches for lean production. Especially small and midsized companies ask for a systematic description for the concept in order to understand the context and to get a guideline for the implementation.

Planning teams are faced with increasing demands concerning their work. The variety of products, globalization, agility or sustainable manufacturing leads to increasingly complex planning processes. Furthermore, planning teams are distributed around the globe and are affected by a growing number of communication interfaces. Building upon this, this paper introduces a particular serious play method. The method intends to improve communication in planning teams and to support knowledge work in general. Furthermore, it tries to foster close collaboration among the planning team members using an interdisciplinary workshop setting and intense communication. Two case studies are utilized to validate the method’s supporting functions. The findings indicate that the method supports communication and knowledge work. Nonetheless, furthermore research is necessary to determine quantitative effects and additional application scenarios.