Wissensbasierte Produktionssysteme für den Automobilbau

The environment in which companies operate is highly turbulent. All influencing factors from markets, like customisation of products, fast innovations - caused by new technologies and fast engineering -, the complexity of products, and the pressure of global competition define the conditions of manufacturing in the future. In the past manufacturing was oriented towards the flexibility of operating systems. Now, factory structures, technologies and resources have to be transformed permanently for adaptation and survival in a turbulent environment. Many experts talk about the necessity of mutability of industrial production due to the variety of influence factors and fast changes and invite science to search for solutions for mastering these changes by robust methods. Knowledge is a main resource and all in all society moves towards a knowledge based society. This paper deals with a new model of factories as complex and transformable systems and with road maps for a new knowledge based production system beyond Toyota which will influence the strategic development of factories.