THE VARIANT PRODUCTION SYSTEM - A new approach for production logistics in the variant-rich series production

摘要

High flexibility in production and short delivery times are getting more important every day for success in a customer-oriented market. Good quality as an exclusive enterprise intention is not sufficient anymore. Today, industrial enterprises see themselves increasingly exposed to dynamic demands such as fluctuating volumes, growth of variants and the highest demands on delivery pentability. Therefore, good quality must go with low costs, an essentially improved lead time and a high flexibility towards customer's demands. An increasing number of variants and nearly unforeseeable production lots are the consequence. Conventional production concepts cannot fulfill these demands, less system availability and more standstills are the consequence. In this paper, a new approach for handling the increasing number of variants will be shown: The Variant Production System (VPS). VPS is described as the last step in the product generating chain by resolving the classical differentiation between manufacturing and assembly for variant-neutral and variant-decisive production processes. The approach is holistic. The integration of more manufacturing processes into an assembly line, which determine the variant, affects all elements of the production. Rising complexity in production and an increasing number of variants demands new organizational and logistical concepts. The new approach with the focus on production logistics allow one-piece-flow and just-in-sequence production. Furthermore the paper will show how to manage the growth of variants with this concept. Finally practical cases from industry will be depicted.