flexibility

The past few years have shown that Digitization is not just a fad of the millennium, but rather the next inevitable step in technological evolution. It was and is a development that affects everything and everyone, both socially and industrially. But digital transformation requires more than just the conversion of individual processes in the company or the introduction of new technologies. Above all, it requires sustained agility in development and production, as well as ongoing employee training in order to be able to meet this demand for agility as a company.

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) combined with a dynamically interconnected assembly system promise high flexibility and transformability to cope with an increasingly dynamic and complex business environment. Existing approaches for planning AGVs operate on a high level of aggregation so that they do not address the transformability of the transport system itself. Therefore, this article introduces a planning approach that explicitly addresses the transformability of the system by planning on component level. The application is demonstrated within a Greenfield project of the worldwide active pump manufacturer WILO SE.

As Industry 4.0 Technologies are swiftly spreading in global economy and enterprises are cooperating in supply chain networks, the question arises how fit these networks are for the imminent challenges. The contribution presents a method which allows to evaluate the industry 4.0-readiness for the example of an automotive network. As a first part, a qualitative analysis is carried out by means of an Industry 4.0-compass. Subsequently, a performance indicator based quantitative analysis is used to assess the industry 4.0-readiness of the automotive network.

The most basic task of conveyor systems in intra-logistics is the transport of goods. For more complex tasks, such as rotating, sorting or layer forming, additional mechanical components are often needed. These range from simple pneumatic cylinders to complex industrial robots. This paper presents the novel and highly flexible conveyor system Celluveyor. Due to the modular design and system architecture, any plant layout can be generated and virtually any material handling task can be realized by a simple software update with one single conveyor system.

Temporary employment can contribute significantly to the efficient regulation of the workforce capacity. Personnel service providers enable not only needs-based and speedy recruitment of employees, but also their flexible deployment and eventually quick release. The article describes the relevant management options available and compares them to in-house alternatives. The advantages of using temporary employment, together with the related risks are emphasized.

Volatile markets and global and inter-industrial networks are creating a radically more dynamic market environment calling for considerably greater on-demand flexibility and reductions in resource deployment. This results in a need for action in two further areas, namely increasing transformability and responding to demographic change. Today’s businesses have to respond to evolving these trends. Manufacturing will also have to adapt to the increasing dynamism of sales markets and the radical challenges thrown up by the innovation process, particularly in regard to energy and resource efficiency and the increasing hybridization of products using mechatronics, software and services. Innovative approaches are needed to accelerate the product creation process, optimize the transitions from product development to production, and ensure that the cost of manufacturing is competitive. This study examines constructive approaches in the area of urban production for sustainable added value in ...

Flexibility becomes increasingly the crucial success factor. This is the result of a current survey on small and medium-sized enterprises in Germany. More than a quarter of the participants indicated that flexibility was their most important business goal. What this result means for the personnel policy of a company and in the end for its employees is the focus of this article. The here presented survey is part of the BMBF project “FlexPro” that investigates different strategies of internal flexibilization as well as determinants of using external workers, especially temporary agency workers.

Nowadays, the economic determining factors are volatile and change dynamically leading to high uncertainty and risk for supply chain partners. Increased supply chain flexibility is not only considered as a success factor but is also essential for companies to remain competitive. The present article is based on selected results from expert interviews, a focus group as well as a survey analysing the status quo concerning supply chain risk management and the importance of flexibility. Afterwards, a process model is presented which consists of an approach to deduct strategies and measures in order to adjust supply chain flexibility in a structured way. The approach can be implemented for risk mitigation in practice.

For the design of an agile production system in addition to the holistic view of production and its internal and external links, a detailed analysis of individual components is necessary. These elements are general manufacturing equipment in various types of expression. To investigate and valuate the properties of these components primarily key figures and indicators are used. In the field of facility and maintenance management the Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) parameter is widely used to determine the equipment efficiency. This indicator is an integral part of a holistic maintenance management. Recent developments use the OEE value as a basis to evaluate the whole value chain to get a holistic view of the included equipment. This integrated approach is an essential component for assessing the flexibility of production systems, which presents itself in three different dimensions.

The migration of production sites out of Europe is primarily based on manufacturing costs. Therefore, perfectly functioning communication systems and reliable logistic services are needed. Although the advantage of lower labor costs will decrease in the future, more low-wage countries will be discovered. The answer cannot be found in low-cost production but in an approach which optimizes processes in a holistic way avoiding waste through intelligent solutions.