Classification coding of production systems for identification of platform candidates

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Production platforms present an attractive solution to managing increasing product variety in production systems. Forming production systems platforms can potentially facilitate changeable manufacturing and co-development of products and production systems. One of the first steps in developing a production platform is the identification of the potential candidates. A scheme for classification coding of production systems is presented. Coded production systems can be compared across a manufacturer’s departments in order to identify commonalities between systems, and thus identify candidates for platform development. The production system classification code consists of four sub-codes with four to ten digits each describing physical or logical characteristics on production system or cell levels. The four sub-codes are structured into blocks of classification code, which digitally represent and describe complete production systems. They facilitate the comparison and identification of similarity and commonality patterns using the code digits and values. A production system case study is used for illustration and is represented as a block of code following the developed coding scheme. The production systems classification code can be used as a decision support tool in the early phases of production systems platform development, and for capturing information on the rationale, structure, processes and enablers of flexible and changeable production systems.