management of complexity

Although all approaches to proactive change management of production systems emphasize the relevance of complexity, an integrated building block “management of complexity” is not available. Based on a specification of the domains and dimensions of production complexity a framework for handling complexity is outlined. It covers guidelines, principles and tools for coping with the multiplicity, diversity, ambiguity and dynamics of production systems.

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.