Development path for industrial enterprises towards urban manufacturing

Industrial enterprises are forced to cope with ever higher challenges resulting from trends like the ongoing individualization tendency which results in ever smaller lot sizes, like the limited availability of talents, and like the pressure towards ever lower emissions. A promising approach to cope with the increasing challenges is the application of new production strategies like urban manufacturing. In this contribution, a development path for companies to guide the transition towards urban manufacturing is presented. The development path is structured in seven essential perspectives which are split into five stages. Based on an as-is analysis, the starting point for the advancement of a company can be determined in the resulting raster, and consequently steps for the advancement of the company can be identified.