Technology based planning of high performance manufacturing systems

Due to the continuously growing speed of innovation in available production technologies, the planning of the optimal development of a production system has to be based on the development of the embedded technologies. This technology based method ensures, that at any time production processes operate at the maximal feasible level and that the organizational structure supports the value adding processes in the best possible way. To evaluate the economic profitability of the production system development correctly, it is on the one hand it is necessary to consider all induced effects on the level of the production system, and on the other to include the effects of system change in the whole life-cycle. The paper shows an innovative holistic approach for this technology based system development. This approach begins with a method to select the drivers of technological change for a specific production system followed by a combined static and dynamic method to generate effects on machine, human capacity and other system parameters. The last element included in the approach is the economic evaluation of the caused effects regarding all life cycle elements and all effects on the production system level. A case study in a German machine-building company showed that through a new combined tool and machine-tool concept the needed machine capacity can be reduced by over 50%. The economic evaluation showed, that due to the strong relation in the production system only a combined technological and organisational development led to a significant cost reduction of 17% system costs per year.