Integrating product development and production development is a challenging task in the face of rapidly changing product introductions and sustainable processes. Considerable amounts of research and practical efforts have been devoted to achieve increased integration productivity, yet, many modern companies still struggle with this in their product realisation processes. The two prominent product-realisation approaches of product platforms and concurrent engineering focus on improving new product introduction by increased modularisation and improved overlap of activities across organisational boundaries. However, implementing these approaches increases several entanglements and requires efforts in the short-term to gain the desired effects in the long-term. To contribute to this quest, this paper aims to investigate the system behaviours relevant to support required long-term work in managing the industrial practice of product platforming. By applying systems thinking within the system dynamics methodology, specifically causal loop diagrams (CLDs) in a case study within an industrialised house-building company in the progress of implementing product platforming, the objectives were to better understand why the integration challenges are so persistent and if CLDs are suitable to reveal and visualise the barriers to and enablers of the integration of product and production co-development. Two comprehensive CLD models have been developed based on empirical data and model building to extract the mental models of a product manager and a production performance manager, each offering their unique perspectives on successfully managing product and production co-development. Analysing the CLDs provides management insights into co-development between the conflicting perspectives, indicating the suitability and value of the CLD approach despite its limitations. Using CLDs help both to narrate fragmented stories into their bigger pictures to resolve conflicting objectives between department silos and to pinpoint several development potentials for the company in their transition towards proactiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the economic sustainability implications of reconfigurable modularization and changeability in semi-automatic assembly systems using a system dynamics perspective. Through our applied research, using a multiple case study approach, we assess the potential and drawbacks of reconfigurable modularization to advance sustainable practices in the manufacturing industry with the purpose of improving overall long-term resource allocation in product realization processes. The traditional approach of developing and industrializing one product at a time is becoming obsolete due to factors such as more frequent product introductions, technological innovations, and sustainability requirements. This is due to the increasing trends of product variety and customization, which often necessitate costly modifications to production systems throughout their life cycles. To address these challenges, scholars advocate for the adoption of reconfigurable modular architectures in product and production system designs, facilitated through product platforming. However, when it comes to studies of the long-term economic impacts from the effects in operations, meaning the economic sustainability implications for the production system throughout its life cycle, there is limited research examining the economic rationale for this approach. Therefore, this paper proposes a systematic examination of the economic sustainability implications of reconfigurable modularization in semi-automatic assembly systems using a system dynamics perspective. By leveraging a system dynamics simulation, we structure and investigate the potential economic short- and long-term tradeoffs between the benefits and drawbacks of reconfigurable modularization derived from empirical findings across four case studies. The novelty of this study highlights not only the investment costs and related engineering implications and their costs but also the estimated operation costs encompassing multiple product introductions expected during the life cycle of a production system. We believe that such an approach offers valuable insights into how reconfigurable modularization can be useful from an economic sustainability viewpoint within semi-automatic assembly systems, thereby contributing to the ongoing industrial transformation towards sustainability.

The traditional way of developing production systems is often limited by merely considering an imminent new product. The longevity of a production system’s lifecycle is at risk following this approach and may create a focus on the current functionality and capacity rather than on fulfilling future product requirements. Changeable production address this challenge, however, support for production engineers to consider more changeable solutions is lacking. Thus, this paper proposes support for evaluating production capabilities and mapping how new products may impact the production system. The support is developed in two industrial cases which studied current production capabilities and future requirements put on two automatic assembly lines. The support allows for estimates of the cost of repurposing the assembly lines to accommodate the new products and paves the way for seeing beyond the dedicated manufacturing paradigm towards increased levels of changeable production.

This book is for professionals working with the development of production systems. It provides guidance on how to design production systems capable of meeting uncertain market requirements in the future, whether these are fluctuations in demand volume, requirements for product variants, or introduction of completely new product families.

• An introduction to the fundamental principles of changeable, reconfigurable, modular, and platform-based production systems.
• A research-based method for developing reconfigurable production systems.
• Practical tools for analyzing existing capabilities, developing new concepts, and evaluating these.
• Examples from Danish and Swedish production companies of various sizes and industries.

With shrinking product life cycles and increasing competitive pressure, the traditional way of developing production systems is becoming obsolete. A longer-term perspective that considers the stream of product realisation projects to be implemented in the production system over its lifetime is required. Because of the success of different platform strategies in the product domain, platforms in the production domain are deemed a viable avenue for exploration to reach longevity in production capabilities. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to support a long-term view of production development through production platforms. This aim is addressed through two research questions (RQs). RQ1 is ‘What challenges and enablers exist for long-term production development?’ and should identify hindrances and good practices towards reaching long-term production development. RQ2 is ‘How can a platform approach support long-term production development?’ and describes how a platform approach for long-term production development could be. Four studies were conducted and reported in the four appended papers. The research is based on an interactive research approach with three empirically-based studies and one systematic literature review. The findings indicate that production development is conducted from a short-term perspective. Several challenges were identified regarding long-term production development, as well as the fact that the use of production platforms is not applied in industry. Further, the production platform literature is found to be still rather limited but it has been concluded that production platforms are an approach to describe the production system and its assets to facilitate reuse. Support for achieving long-term production development is presented, including production capability mapping (PCM) support. PCM support enables platform descriptions to be generated and used as a foundation in long-term production development to create a production system that possesses a higher ability to absorb changes. 

Med krympande produktlivscykler och ökande konkurrens är det traditionella tillvägagångssättet att utveckla produktionssystem föråldrat. Det behövs ett långsiktigt perspektiv som tar hänsyn till strömmen av produktrealiseringsprojekt som ska implementeras i produktionssystemet under dess livstid. För att nå långsiktighet i produktionsförmåga anses framgången av olika plattformsstrategier inom produktdomänen vara en indikator på att plattformar inom produktionsdomänen kan vara en livskraftig väg att utforska. Syftet med denna forksning är att stödja långsiktighet i produktionsutveckling genom produktionsplattformar. Syftet adresseras genom två forskningsfrågor. Den första forskningsfrågan är ”vilka utmaningar och möjliggörare finns för långsiktig produktionsutveckling?” och syftar till att identifiera hinder och bra tillvägagångsätt för långsiktig produktionsutveckling. Den andra forskningsfrågan är ”hur kan ett plattformstillvägagångssätt stödja långsiktig produktionsutveckling?” och beskriver hur andvändingen av plattformar för långsiktig produktionsutveckling kan se ut. Fyra studier genomfördes och rapporterades i de fyra bifogade publikationerna. Forskningen är baserad på en interaktivt forskningsmetod med tre empiriskt baserade studier och en litteraturstudie. Resultaten indikerar att produktionsutveckling genomförs med ett kortsiktigt perspektiv. Flera utmaningar identifieras mot långsiktig produktionsutveckling. Produktionsplattformar är inte en implementderad metod för långsiktig produktionsutveckling och litteraturen kring produktionsplattformar är fragmenterad. Däremot dras slutsatsen att produktionsplattformar kan vara ett tillvägagångssätt för att beskriva produktionssystem och dess tillgångar för att främja återanvändning. Ett stöd för att kartlägga produktionsförmåga (PCM- stöd) presenteras i denna avhandling som stöd för att nå långsiktig produktionsutveckling. PCM- stödet möjligör att plattformsbeskrivningar kan genereras och agerar som basen i långsiktig produktionsutveckling för att skapa produktionssystem som besitter en hög förmåga att absorbera förändring. 

Ingress: I dagens konkurrensutsatta marknad behöver företag anpassa sin produktionsutveckling för att uppnå långsiktig hållbarhet och konkurrenskraft. Detta innebär att vi måste ta steg bort från att bara optimera för dagens krav och istället inkludera osäkerheten i framtiden i våra beslut. Detta angreppssätt är en av de viktigaste utmaningarna vi står inför idag.

A well-performing product realisation process in order to introduce new products with high frequency to a low cost, is becoming more of a pre-requisite for manufacturing companies. In a multiple case study, this paper investigates applied industrial practices in production development to support the production realisation process and reports on the current ways of working and challenges therein. The areas of current production development practices, production platforms, standardised work, and knowledge development are explored. Identified challenges towards long-term production development based on the explored areas are presented. The inclusion of future need of production system adaptions from future products is argued for to increase its efficiency. Through including future need of the production system, the notion of considering one product at the time during industrialisation is challenged and a more proactive perspective can be taken. The production platform approach is considered as one enabler for such an improved production development.

The product realisation process is one of several formalized supports for industrial actors to excel in concurrent engineering procedures. To satisfy customers today mass customization is increasingly in need, requiring delicate modular architectures, both in product designs and production. Emerging is also the digitalized co-platforming era of automating the synchronization of product and production platforms. Yet, in all these processes, humans as agents have different roles, objectives, and mental models that governs their decision-making, being the bearer of separate ideas on what to optimize from their end. In product development large sensitivity is given to customer demands and trends to design attractive products, while less attention may be placed on evaluating the increase of variation into the production flows from new products, potentially increasing the workload and complexity of assembly systems, as well as, the subsequent material logistics. In production, much effort is invested to increase standardization, increase the pace, and minimize the manufacturing cost, with the objective to minimize required changes to the current production system. Consequently, it is a hard problem to satisfy all criteria at once, and how to solve it has no clear answer. Therefore, this study has applied qualitative System Dynamics modelling, also often referred to as systems thinking, to investigate how these opposing views were represented at an industrialized house builder. The purpose was to explore and model the perspectives and mental models of two leading roles to model their conflicting objectives. As a result, an overall model of main interactions of product and production development is proposed to support interpreting the findings, visualize the identified conflicting dynamics, and work as a vehicle for analysis.

To enable firms adapting their manufacturing capabilities to meet the market demands in a cost-efficient way the concept of reconfigurable manufacturing was established. A starting point towards implementing reconfigurable manufacturing in a brownfield setting is to identify the current level of reconfigurability. In this paper a model to assess the level of reconfigurability is proposed. The assessment model has been developed through a multiple case study in collaboration with industry. The model is founded on the characteristics of reconfigurability and provides indication of the reconfigurability level.

Production platforms can be considered as the foundation for the design, development, and reconfiguration of a production system. Even though, the product platform domain has been extensively researched and applied widely in practice, this is not the case in the production domain regarding production platforms and reconfigurable production systems. Therefore, this paper reviews the current product and production platform literature to distinguish the production platform co-development research. A systematic literature review has been carried out to explore the concept of production platforms and pinpoint what research gaps that needs to be bridged.