Design for Changeability (DFC) in Product-Oriented Production

摘要

The implementation of changeable production systems is a key success factor for manufacturing enterprises, which are forced to offer large product varieties and frequent innovation. The term changeability refers to the capability of production systems to adapt to frequently and rapidly changing unforeseen requirements. Existing approaches to implement changeability in production usually strive for a maximum degree of changeability and do not sufficiently take into account that changeability is resource consuming and thus, costly. The authors propose an integrated approach 'Design for Changeability (DFC)' to analyse the changeability requirements of a production system, deduct a differentiated change profile and systematically derive production structures with an appropriate degree of changeability. The approach relies on the fundamentals of systems theory and modular system design.