Team Table: A Framework and Tool for a Continuous Factory Planning

Growing market turbulences and shorter product life cycles require a continuous adaptation of factory structures resulting in a continuous factory planning process. Therefore a new framework is developed which focusses on configuration and data management process integration. This enables an online system performance evaluation based on continuous availability of current data. The use of this framework is especially helpful and will guarantee high cost and time savings, when used in the early stages of the planning, called the concept or rough planning phase. The new framework is supported by a planning round table as a tool for team-based configuration processes integrating the knowledge of all persons involved in planning processes. A case study conducted at a German company shows the advantages which can be achieved by implementing the new framework and methods.