Method for analysis and dynamism of factory-structure in automotive manufacturing

A turbulent environment characterized by unsteady economic cycles, customized products, a growing bandwidth of products, an exploding number of variants and shorter product lifecycles force manufacturers to permanent adaptation of their factories. Flexible and changeable structures will be required to enlable factories dealing with the technological challenges and economic pressure of the future competitively. In order to achieve changeability objectives in manufacturing, a detailed analysis of existing structures and its representative attributes is essential. It is the basis for systematic structure planning of factories. In this paper a method for analyzing the capacitive and technological structure of a factory embedded in a network of manufacturing and its network of suppliers is presented. Intended is the synchronization of product and production development under the infIuence of change. Therefore, the structural view of product and production is specifically in focus of the method. Based on the results of the analysis models an approach of a tool for giving product and production structure dynamism is suggested to investigate the effects and dependencies of change drivers in manufacturing.