Short-cycled factory planning - motivation and existing challenges

Factory planning is faced with an increasingly dynamic business environment. Product life cycles are being continuously shortened due to more frequent product, process and technology innovations and, thus, to ensure global competitiveness. Combined with increasing government and social restrictions, factories must be adapted in shorter cycles. Assuming a constant need for adjustments to ensure production under optimal settings, a more frequent factory replanning leads to a decreasing operating time and thus directly impacts the overall efficiency of the factory. This publication analyzes the existing needs and challenges for short-cycled factory planning. To approach this topic, the conditions of the factory must be considered holistically: both planning and operation phases must be taken into account. Therefore, it is illustrated how the combination of the factory operator's individual strategy influences the optimal operation level of a factory over its life cycle. Furthermore, a first characterization of short-cycled factory planning is presented, and potentials for consistency of planning information through the factory life cycle are analyzed.