Agile manufacturing on the rise

For decades, lean production or lean manufacturing was the defining production organization of industrial manufacturing - from vehicle construction to electronics. With Industry 4.0, the conditions for lean production have improved even further, because the networking of customers, OEMs and Tire-1 makes it possible to manage the processes in production even more closely and to free them from any ballast.

Now another, newer production principle is emerging: Agile Manufacturing. The starting point is new requirements that have arisen on the basis of Industry 4.0: Customers demand more flexibility from networked production, they expect quick reactions and short-term responses to changes in product design or specifications, for example. And there is also the demand that a batch size of one must also be possible, which does not really fit in with lean manufacturing.

Efficient implementation of batch size one
It is a huge challenge to align the production process with this new flexibility. Adapting production for ever new product and process variants, enabling even the smallest and smallest batch sizes without production costs exploding. After all, batch size one has always been possible, but now it has to be implemented efficiently.

The comprehensive, end-to-end networking and digitization of processes from the drawing in engineering to the machines on the shop floor provides the prerequisite for the optimization of production processes through agile manufacturing. This means that production can not only be changed over quickly, but this adjustment can also be largely automated. In the engineering system, for example, appropriate sets of rules can be defined that react immediately to changes in drawings. Conversely, the Manufacturing Execution System knows the functional characteristics of the machines and prepares the adjustments immediately.

Vehicle production as a prime example
Especially in environments where it is difficult to predict what needs to be produced next, where production volumes are low and great variability is in demand, agile manufacturing is right. A good example of this is the production of cable harnesses in vehicle manufacturing. The major manufacturers now produce not only a large number of types, but also an almost incalculable number of equipment variants: From the engine control system to the various assistance systems to the various infotainment electronics systems. Almost every variant requires its own wiring; not only that: changes within the.

Variants are usually produced at very short notice, because flexibility is the key. Nevertheless, individual production of cables for cable trees would not be economical because the amount of data to be managed increases exponentially. Increasing digitalization enables agile manufacturing by keeping production controllable. A software automatically creates the production data from the customer data, even in different production versions for the production of the line on the available machines. At the same time, it controls the utilization of the machines and distributes the production orders to the most suitable machines. In this way, it is also possible to avoid errors in the implementation of constantly changing production schedules. The batch sizes to be produced can be reduced, which increases the variety of orders that can be allocated to the most suitable machines without negatively affecting a tight delivery schedule.

Boundaries shift
Of course, not every production can be organized this way. Agile manufacturing is suitable for high adaptation requirements with a focus on high flexibility. If, on the other hand, the aim in mass production is to use resources as efficiently as possible, lean manufacturing is the better choice. However, the boundaries between the two concepts are shifting as a result of Industry 4.0: networking enables efficient flexibility even in areas where it was unthinkable just a few years ago.