Flexibility in component manufacturing systems: evaluation framework and case study

Abstract

Traditional component manufacturing systems have been optimized for either small scale craft production or for mass production of a small variety of high volume parts. Trends towards intermediate volumes and larger variety of parts have exposed the need for intelligently embedding flexibility in manufacturing systems and processes. The literature offers only few attempts to value component fabrication flexibility in a systematic way. In this article a 5-step framework for valuing flexibility and ranking of manufacturing processes under uncertainty is developed. A discrete time simulation is used to predict profit, remaining tool value and machine utilization as a function of three probabilistic demand and specification scenarios. A case study demonstrates the simulation and contrasts both a high volume (automotive) and a low volume (aerospace) market situation across six different processes ranging from punching to laser cutting. It is found that for intermediate, uncertain production volumes alternative manufacturing processes that embed flexibility carefully in one or more dimensions can outperform traditional processes that are either completely non-flexible (e.g., stamping) or completely flexible (e.g., laser cutting). It is also shown that flexibility in parts manufacturing is a complex topic because flexibility can be embedded in the parts themselves, in tooling or in the process parameters.