Evaluation of the demand-oriented flexibility in the planning of manufacturing process sequences in serial production

Manufacturing companies, even in serial production, are frequently faced with the challenge that the requirements for products and components are changing, which leads to increased uncertainty in production planning. Uncertain product and component information must therefore be integrated into production planning to ensure long-term and demand-orientated production. Thus, the importance of production flexibility increases, so that this must be taken into account in production planning. In production planning, the flexibility of production must be aligned with the need for flexibility to ensure the economic efficiency of production. As a contribution to consider the flexibility in manufacturing planning, a methodology for the evaluation of the demand-oriented flexibility in the planning of manufacturing process sequences in serial production is introduced which enables the identification of the most suitable manufacturing process sequences and therefore a complexity reduction in manufacturing planning. A case study is presented to supplement the explanation of the methodology's steps and to validate its applicability.