Data Acquisition to Handle Complexity in Matrix Production Systems

Dynamically changing markets, the ongoing trend towards individualized products and the reduction of product life cycles confront manufacturing companies with new challenges and require an adaption of their production systems. Compared to rigidly coupled production lines or single assembly stations, so-called matrix production systems, combine high flexibility and high productivity to face these challenges. However, such manufacturing systems may be more complex concerning production planning and control. This paper proposes a generic model of a matrix production system to outline its main properties. In addition, the complexity of a matrix production system is characterized based on selected complexity drivers. As a result, data acquisition is identified as an opportunity to cope with complexity during production operations in matrix production systems.