۱- Introduction

۲- Context

۳- Methodology

۴- Developing the learning factory for the specific use case

۵- Conclusion

References

Abstract

Manufacturing companies nowadays face difficulties due to inefficient change management in domains as engineering, manufacturing, logistics, etc. Even though there are powerful software solutions and process-based methods available, it is uncertain how to efficiently react in an integrated manner to interdisciplinary changes. Whereas learning factories show great results for manufacturing education, change management is still uninvestigated in this context. Therefore, this work presents the basic infrastructure and use case for a demonstration and teaching environment that is currently being developed at Skoltech in collaboration with TUM. The results are derived from an integrated process for engineering and manufacturing change management.

Introduction

Twenty-first-century manufacturers are coping with customer’s increasing demand for diversity by embracing Mass Customization. This concept was coined in Boston by Davis[1] in 1989, who envisioned this oxymoron to become a significant competitive market advantage for companies [2]. However, due to variants and shorter innovation cycles, Mass Customization leads to a high amount of changes within the product and the manufacturing system. It was mentioned that computer-aided design and manufacturing (CAD/CAM) solutions can reduce machine downtime during changes [1]. However, 30 years later, industry still has not fully adopted an integrated digital support for Mass Customization. Researchers have identified four areas, which would enable Mass Customization: methodologies, processes, manufacturing technologies, and information technologies [2,3]. While some of the research topics have been discussed extensively, an important issue that still has not received sufficient consideration is the integration of engineering and manufacturing change management activities. We have encountered many examples in industry showing that the lack of change synchronization has led to serious failures and budget overruns. To date, various studies [4.-.7] have described the IT infrastructure required for integrating engineering and manufacturing design processes.