Lifecycle Oriented Flexibility Assessment of Customized Solutions in Capital Goods Industry: A State of the Art

摘要

The beginning of a Product-Service System's lifecycle is surrounded by a high degree of uncertainty regarding customers' todays and prospective requirements. Thus, the ability to adapt a Product-Service System to changing customer requirements by providing flexibility becomes an important quality and success criterion along the entire lifecycle. This paper analyzes existing approaches of economic and engineering theory dealing with the assessment of flexibility in the industrial environment. A State of the Art is provided including literature reviews on both the economic assessment, based on NPV and ROA, and the engineering assessment, based on a detailed flexibility analysis that originates from manufacturing systems. The article continues with implications, followed by a recommendation and appoints tasks for further research.