TY - JOUR

T1 - Adequate and economic factory transformability and the effects on logistical performance

AU - Nyhuis, Peter

AU - Heinen, Tobias

AU - Brieke, Michael

N1 - Funding Information: The findings presented in this paper have been developed in the course of a research project funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology (BMWi) via the German Federation of Industrial Research Associations ‘‘Otto von Guericke’’ (AiF) and commissioned by the German Logistics Association (BVL).

PY - 2008/9

Y1 - 2008/9

N2 - Objective-oriented factory planning is a prerequisite for the economic operation of a factory. As intensive discussions in the literature as well as practical findings in factories over the years show, transformability and logistics are among the key objectives of a factory. It is striking, however, that both objectives have not so far been related to each other. Based on these findings, a method for evaluating the actual as well as the target transformability of a factory has been developed. It allows the user to assess whether the factory possesses adequate and economic transformability. In order to make the method more manageable for users in practice, a software tool is presented, and a benchmarking has been derived from the data collected by evaluating factory transformability. In addition, it has been found that transformability can influence logistics. A procedure will be presented that allows major means of adjustment to be found that improve the logistics objectives of a factory by using transformability. Finally, the outlook for future developments is discussed.

AB - Objective-oriented factory planning is a prerequisite for the economic operation of a factory. As intensive discussions in the literature as well as practical findings in factories over the years show, transformability and logistics are among the key objectives of a factory. It is striking, however, that both objectives have not so far been related to each other. Based on these findings, a method for evaluating the actual as well as the target transformability of a factory has been developed. It allows the user to assess whether the factory possesses adequate and economic transformability. In order to make the method more manageable for users in practice, a software tool is presented, and a benchmarking has been derived from the data collected by evaluating factory transformability. In addition, it has been found that transformability can influence logistics. A procedure will be presented that allows major means of adjustment to be found that improve the logistics objectives of a factory by using transformability. Finally, the outlook for future developments is discussed.

KW - Benchmarking

KW - Factory planning

KW - Logistics objectives

KW - Transformability

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=41549139643&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1007/s10696-007-9027-3

DO - 10.1007/s10696-007-9027-3

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:41549139643

VL - 19

SP - 286

EP - 307

JO - International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

JF - International Journal of Flexible Manufacturing Systems

SN - 0920-6299

IS - 3

ER -