Introduction and Literature Overview

Abstract

In recent years, manufacturing companies have entered a new era in which all manufacturing enterprises must compete in a global economy. Global competition increases customers’ purchasing power, which, in turn, drives frequent introduction of new products and causes large fluctuations in product demand. To stay competitive, companies must use production systems that not only produce their goods with high productivity, but also allow for rapid response to market changes and customers’ needs. A new manufacturing capability that allows for a quick production launch of new products, with production quantities that might unexpectedly vary, becomes a necessity. Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS), offer this capability. If we look at the evolution steps of factories in the last twenty years, we basically find different factory concepts and production concepts in each decade depending on different goals and criteria. Stable and well-predicted markets led to a functional factory in which know-how was concentrated in departments in order to achieve optimisation with a high flexibility of resources. Later, the necessity of a more consistent orientation to markets and products led to segmented factories. These concepts led to an enormous increase of the efficiency of the total business through independently acting units oriented towards products and markets. The growing complexity within the value-added chain can no longer be steered merely by means of hierarchical leadership in competences. In the future, networks as well as increasing cooperation and decentralisation will be regarded as a main solution.