Methodology for structure-analysis of automotive manufacturing

A turbulent environment characterized by unsteady economic cycles, customized products, a broad range of product variants and shorter product lifecycles force manufacturers to permanent adaptation of their factories. Flexible structures will be required to enable factories dealing with the technological challenges and economic pressure of the future competitively. In order to achieve flexibility 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. This paper presents a methodology for anaIyzing the capacitive and technological structure of a factory embedded in a manufacturing network and its network of suppliers. Intended is the synchronization of product and production technologies. Therefore, the structural view of product and production is in focus of the proposed method.