Towards a model for evaluating the investment of reconfigurable and platform-based manufacturing concepts considering footprint adaptability

摘要

The capital goods industry is characterized by intensified competition and increased fragmentation of demand. Consequently, manufacturers are required to handle higher variety at lower cost with rapid responsiveness. Reconfigurable manufacturing shows potential to meet these requirements through efficient functionality conversion of modularized equipment for increased ability to adapt the footprint to achieve cost-improvements and competitive advantage. However, current models for evaluating the investment of reconfigurable manufacturing concepts lack consideration of footprint adaptability. Therefore, this paper presents a model considering reconfigurability investments and footprint, which is applied on a case at a Danish manufacturer of capital goods for the energy sector.