Purpose - This thesis aims to developing a decision-making tool which fits in a reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) milieu used to identify whether to introduce and produce a new product into an already existing assembly line or to invest in a new assembly line. To fulfil the purpose, four research questions were developed. 

1. Which line balancing problem-solving techniques exist in the literature?
2. Which investment costs can be considered vital for new assembly lines as a    consequence from new product introductions?
3. Can a decision-making tool be designed to evaluate new product introductions which considers both line balancing KPIs and investment costs in an assembly line?
4. To what extent can criteria in the RMS theory be linked with the attributes of the    designed decision-making tool to support its applicability?

Method - Literature studies were performed in order to create a theoretical foundation for the thesis to stand upon, hence enabling the possibility to answer the research questions. The literature studies were structured to focus on selected topics, including reconfigurable manufacturing systems, line balancing, and assembly line investment costs. To answer the third research question, which involved creating a decision-making tool, a single-case study was carried out. The company chosen was within the automotive industry. Data was collected through interviews, document studies and a focus group.

Findings & analysis - An investigation regarding which line balancing solving-techniques suit RMS and which assembly line investment costs are critical when  introducing new products has been made. The outputs from these  investigations set the foundation for developing a decision-making tool which enables fact-based decisions. To test the decision-making tool’s compatibility with reconfigurable manufacturing systems, an evaluation against established characteristics was performed. The evaluation identified two reconfigurable manufacturing system characteristic as having a direct correlation to the decision-making tool. These characteristics regarded scalability and convertibility.

Conclusions - The industrial contribution of the thesis was a decision-making tool that enables fact-based decisions regarding whether to introduce a new product into an already existing assembly line or invest in a new assembly line. The academic contribution involved that the procedure for evaluating the tool was recognized as also being suitable for testing the reconfigurable correlation with other production development tools. Another contribution regards bridging the knowledge gaps of the classifications in line balancing-solving techniques and assembly line investment costs.

Delimitations - One of the delimitations in the thesis involved solely focusing on developing and analysing a decision-making tool from an RMS perspective. Hence, other production systems were not in focus. Also, the thesis only covered the development of a decision-making tool for straight assembly lines, not U-shaped lines.

In a time where digitalization is becoming more and more necessary to work with, tools such as simulation is becoming more of a standard to be able to make decisions made on facts. Within previous research there is a gap in the research, as the factors enabling operators to use simulation is an unexplored topic. Therefore, to fill this gap and provide the industry with help, this study fulfills the purpose: 

Create a framework for enabling operators to use simulation for continuous improvements. 

By looking at the different areas in the production and identifying challenges within the production, information handling between the departments and the structure of the company, the purpose of this study is fulfilled. The purpose was achieved through the usage of two research questions. 

What are the challenges in practice for enabling operators to use simulation for continuous improvements? 

How can these challenges be overcome, to enable operators to use simulation for continuous improvements? 

To answer the research questions, a case study was performed alongside a literature review. The case study consisted of interviews performed at a case company within the automotive industry. The gathered empirical and theoretical data was then analyzed trough a thematic analysis. 

The conclusion of this study was that, for enabling operators to use simulation for continuous improvements, companies must first have the right organizational structure, were a foundation for continuous improvement is present. The reason for this being that if a company desires to work with simulation tools, they must first work in an environment where suggestions and improvements are supported. 

Currently, customers are exerting a lot of pressure on companies by demanding for best product quality, customized products, reduced product lead time and reliable product delivery. Therefore, for companies to be highly competitive, there is need to improve productivity and delivery performance by having an efficient material flow. Nevertheless, the task of making the material to flow efficiently throughout the manufacturing process up to when the customer receives the product is not easy. To solve this, companies are focusing on the material handling system as it has an impact on efficient material flow and productivity. Hence, the aim of this project was to explore how an internal material handling system can be improved to guarantee a better delivery performance.

To fulfil the aim, a single case study was undertaken at a dairy food producing company in Jonkoping. The information on the subject area was obtained through interviews, observation at the company and an extensive literature review. The information that was obtained was assessed in accordance with the framework of the project that includes; principles and physical elements used for designing a material handling system, software and information, and human and management.

Combined analysis of the findings from the empirical study and the extensive literature review helped to identify the problems faced in an internal material handling system of the company. This was followed by identifying ways of improving material handling system and thereafter, improvement suggestions were made targeting enhancement of the delivery performance of the system.

In conclusion, the findings indicate that improvement of an internal material handling system does not only depend on improving the physical attributes of the system, far from it, it is more dependent on having an efficient and effective information system. Another factors that came out is that there should be a proper integration of the material handling system and the workers operating the system. From a systems perspective this research has added information sharing and human and management to the one dimensional physical elements improvement of a material handling system.

The market has been evolving from mass production towards mass customization, which has increased the complexity level for the companies. Unlike in mass production companies where the tasks are routine and standardized, the mass customization types of companies have a varied work demand which makes the work environment complex. These types of mass customization companies are known as High Mix Low Volume type of companies basically because of their characteristics of having a high mix in products and comparatively low volume production. 

This thesis research was done with DEWTON INDUSTRIES, Kochi in India. Although product variety and complexity has been answered using technology development and modularization in the previous studies, there has been less focus given to reducing the complexity from the production process point of view. It is also evident that there is limited literature and research done regarding the standardization in High Mix Low Volume type companies both in the academia and in the industry. Hence, understanding the problems regarding standardization in a High Mix Low Volume company and how to handle them has been of a major importance at this point of time.

The purpose of the research is to see how standardization can be increased in HMLV companies. The research approach used here was the case study to collect the necessary data to achieve the results. The data collection techniques used were interviews, observations and literature review, which gave the guidelines and suggested solutions to the identified problems related to standardization in High Mix Low Volume company in the production department. 

The findings from the research suggest that standardization in HMLV production is very important for the companies in their current market demands. This is because standardization has a major effect on the quality of end products, production lead time, working standards of employees in the production department and design department. Various problems can occur, and only standardized procedures can solve these problems. It has been well exemplified in this thesis work, how these standardized procedures can increase the quality of the products, increase production speed, and also profit for the company.

This research paper can be used as a guideline by other HMLV companies, while they plan to implement standardization in the production department. To the best of our knowledge this research was one of a kind in this particular field of study and also provides a base for in-depth research on each identified problem.

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.

Increasingly volatile and complex manufacturing environments make the continuous development of engineering professionals’ knowledge and competences in changeable and reconfigurable manufacturing a major source of competitiveness in manufacturing companies. Enablers of this include modular and platform-based product and manufacturing system design, as well as industry 4.0 related technologies and digitalisation. Therefore, this paper focuses on Continuing Engineering Education (CEE) in changeable and reconfigurable manufacturing and investigates the implications of applying a university-industry collaborative approach to Problem-based Learning (PBL) for CEE in company-settings. The paper builds on a four-year CEE initiative from Swedish manufacturing industry and includes insights from implementing a CEE course in changeable manufacturing, which was designed based on PBL principles and run as an industry-university cooperation for four consecutive years. Implications addressed in the paper relates to (1) PBL as a suitable approach for CEE, (2) Research transfer to industry through PBL-based CEE, and (3) industry-university collaboration for CEE, which provides valuable insights on how to conduct successful CEE in knowledge fields that are fast evolving in order to enable fast industry transitions. 

Six Sigma is one of the most successful improvement strategies of the last 5 decades and has been implemented worldwide by organizations in different sectors and sizes. Despite the popularity, 60% of all Six Sigma initiatives are abandoned or end in failure. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate what factors large manufacturing enterprises in Sweden need to prioritize to introduce Six Sigma successfully. The research was conducted as a holistic multiple-case study where qualitative data was collected through semi-structured interviews with three companies. A thematic analysis was made to identify patterns between the companies about critical success factors associated with Six Sigma, Change Management, and Organizational culture. It was shown that Company 1 has introduced Six Sigma but has no defined plan on how to move forward with the initiative. Company 2 has fully introduced the method and is actively working with it, while Company 3 has failed with the introduction of Six Sigma. All identified factors were rated as either a success or a failure factor for each case company. The success factors differentiating Company 2 from the other case companies have been evaluated to be the most critical success factors. Top management commitment, Organizational support, Organizational culture, Communication, and Strategic plan have been identified as the most critical success factors that must be prioritized to introduce Six Sigma successfully. Furthermore, cultural factors such as communication between departments, supportive managers, and committed top management have been identified as important to introduce Six Sigma successfully. The results of this study can be applied to successfully introduce change initiatives in large manufacturing enterprises in Sweden. 

Globalization has continuously brought an increased competition among companies, which entails a need for faster and more frequent deliveries of new products. Traditional project management methods, such as stage-gate and waterfall, are commonly used in production development projects and builds on a sequential approach. These methods have proven to have some disadvantages in flexibility, long lead times and it often creates communication barriers between the actors at each stage. The software industry has already encountered these obstacles and responded by introducing agile project management. Which improves the adaptability and allow changes to be made, due to new requirements from stakeholders or customers, throughout the entire development process. However, it remains unknown how agile models can improve production development. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate how agile models can be applied to production development and what the effects are. 

The authors have performed a case study at eight different companies within the automotive industry. The purpose of it has been to gain a deeper understanding about the case companies current production development processes and review how familiar the organizations are with the concept of agile project management. The extraction of the empirical data was conducted by questionnaires, interviews, and document reviews. An analyzation was done by comparing the empirical findings with the theoretical background out of eleven different categories that relates to project management (e.g., project goals, process, customer integration etc.). The analyzation concluded that the case company exclusively conducts their production development project by using a sequential approach. 

The analyzation and the eleven categories where, together with the theoretical background about agile project management, later used to create the result by brainstorming different practices to become more agile. The results are presented out of three different scenarios, depending how agile the companies would like to be. For instance, are two process models suggested, one that is completely agile and one that is a hybrid of an agile and a stage-gate. Furthermore, are the implementation of self-organized teams, holistic approach towards internal and external partners, and reduced demand for documentation some of the practices that are suggested. Additionally, are three considerable aspects for the implementation presented. 

The expected outcome and effects of applying these practices are discussed in the final chapter. Some of these outcomes are a company culture that will attract and retain talented personnel, where shared responsibilities and authorities triggers the employees to an increased commitment and sense of ownership towards their projects. Furthermore, are the companies expected to experience a more flexible and responsive approach towards conducting production development projects with a high focus on customer requirements and creating customer value. 

The production preparation process (3P) enables collaboration between design and production engineers during product development but its efficiency is limited by the abundance of documentation of manufacturing constraints and capabilities. Empirical studies showed that use of production requirements can increase the efficiency of 3P, however, the support for production engineers to capture and share production requirements is scarce. A method to support production engineers in identifying, defining, structuring and sharing production requirements and collaborating with design engineers is presented. The method has three major parts - focus areas and requirement categories, a worksheet for production requirements capturing and prioritization, and a workflow for using the worksheet. The method was developed in collaboration with practitioners and contributes to the existing knowledge by providing production engineers with a structured way of working with production requirements. Evaluation of the method in the case company showed its usability when developing product variants and that additional work is needed to support the development of new product families and assembly lines.

Changing customer requirements, regulations, technology and regulations, shift to automated assembly and product variety are common challenges faced by many manufacturing industries and alignment between product and production system is critical for business success. Design engineers should be aware of production constraints and capabilities to ensure efficient manufacture and assembly of products that are developed. This requires different and detailed support to guide the work, evaluate different design solutions, enable continuous and concurrent work with design for producibility and production preparation. A study was conducted in three companies to understand alignment and integration of product development and production preparation processes. Also, utilization of production requirements, design for manufacture and assembly (DFMA) and failure modes and effect analysis (FMEA) to support design for producibility (DFP) was studied. Currently, production preparation is done through discussions between design and production engineers. Production preparation and work with DFMA and FMEA is skill and experience dependent. Definition, structuring and sharing of production requirements on different system levels, from production and product perspectives are identified as critical to supporting design for producibility and production preparation. The work with FMEA and DFMA can be developed and improved with systematic and structured way of working with production requirements.

New business opportunities are created when the advantage of changeable manufacturing systems expand beyond increased freedom in production location to increased freedom in product design. However, there are new challenges to overcome, including improved ability to design and adapt products when requirements from stakeholders quickly change and/or new technology rapidly evolves. Simultaneously, the producibility of each design must be ensured while keeping the lead-time of the whole process to the minimum. Changeable product platforms (both flexible and adaptable platforms) are gaining attention in both research and industry. However, the level of alignment and integration of product development and production is critical for the efficiency of the product realization process. In this study, we map the state of practice in five companies with an initial literature review. The companies had no formal platform strategy and faced challenges with variant management and development time, had manual processes for production preparation and reuse of technical solutions and knowledge happened through components and documents. The production preparation and reuse were dependent on the engineer’s competence. Future work will concentrate on identifying how manufacturing inputs can be added as a design asset in a changeable product platform to enhance producibility and production preparation.

Today digital qualification tools are part of many design processes that make them dependent on long and expensive simulations, leading to limited ability in exploring design alternatives. Conventional surrogate modelling techniques depend on the parametric models and come short in addressing radical design changes. Existing data-driven models lack the ability in dealing with the geometrical complexities. Thus, to address the resulting long development lead time problem in the product development processes and to enable parameter-independent surrogate modelling, this paper proposes a method to use images as input for design evaluation. Using a case study on the curtain airbag design process, a database consisting of 60,000 configurations has been created and labelled using a method based on dynamic relaxation instead of finite element methods. The database is made available online for research benchmark purposes. A convolutional neural network with multiple layers is employed to map the input images to the simulation output. It was concluded that the showcased data-driven method could reduce digital testing and qualification time significantly and contribute to real-time analysis in product development. Designers can utilise images of geometrical information to build real-time prediction models with acceptable accuracy in the early conceptual phases for design space exploration purposes.

The development of more complex products has increased dependency on virtual/digital models and emphasized the role of simulations as a means of validation before production. This level of dependency on digital models and simulation togetherwith the customization level and continuous requirement change leads to a large number of iterations in each stage of the product development process. This research, studies such group of products that have multidisciplinary, highly iterative, and simulation-driven design processes. It is shown that these high-level technical products, which are commonly outsourced to suppliers, commonly suffer from a long development lead time. The literature points to several research tracks including design automation and data-driven design with possible support. After studying the advantages and disadvantages of each track, a data-driven approachis chosen and studied through two case studies leading to two supporting tools that are expected to improve the development lead time in associated design processes. Feature extraction in CAD as a way to facilitate metamodeling is proposed as the first solution. This support uses the concept of the medial axis to find highly correlated features that can be used in regression models. As for the second supporting tool, an automated CAD script is used to produce a library of images associated with design variants. Dynamic relaxation is used to label each variant with its finite element solution output. Finally, the library is used to train a convolutions neural network that maps screenshots of CAD as input to finite element field answers as output. Both supporting tools can be used to create real-time prediction models in the early conceptual phases of the product development process to explore design space faster and reduce lead time and cost.

Some high-level technical products are associated with transdisciplinary simulation-driven design processes. Therefore, their design process involves many stakeholders and is prone to frequent changes, leading to a highly iterative process with a long lead time. Despite the decades of statistical approximations and metamodeling techniques on prediction models, companies are still striving toachieve fully automated real-time predictions in early design phases. The literature study shows a gap in existing methods such as not being fully real-time or suffering from high dimensionality. This paper presents a generic model for the development process of such described products and motivation for such modeling through a series of semi-structured interviews with an automotive sub-supplier company. The proposed process model points to the digital verification in every design loop as the bottleneck which is then confirmed by interviewees. As alternative solutions to overcome the problems, a method for data-driven and real-time prediction models is presented to enable the designer to foresee the consequence of their decision in the design phase. To evaluate the method, two examples of such real-time metamodeling techniques, developed in an ongoing research project are discussed. The proposed examples confirm that the framework can reduce lead time spent on digital verification and therefore accelerate the design process in such products.

Many high-level technical products are associated with changing requirements, drastic design changes, lack of design information, and uncertainties in input variables which makes their design process iterative and simulation-driven. Regression models have been proven to be useful tools during design, altering the resource-intensive finite element simulation models. However, building regression models from computer-aided design (CAD) parameters is associated with challenges such as dealing with too many parameters and their low or coupled impact on studied outputs which ultimately requires a large training dataset. As a solution, extraction of hidden features from CAD is presented on the application of volume simulation of curtain airbags concerning geometric changes in design loops. After creating a prototype that covers all aspects of a real curtain airbag, its CAD parameters have been analyzed to find out the correlation between design parameters and volume as output. Next, using the design of the experiment latin hypercube sampling method, 100 design samples are generated and the corresponding volume for each design sample was assessed. It was shown that selected CAD parameters are not highly correlated with the volume which consequently lowers the accuracy of prediction models. Various geometric entities, such as the medial axis, are used to extract several hidden features (referred to as sleeping parameters). The correlation of the new features and their performance and precision through two regression analyses are studied. The result shows that choosing sleeping parameters as input reduces dimensionality and the need to use advanced regression algorithms, allowing designers to have more accurate predictions (in this case approximately 95%) with a reasonable number of samples. Furthermore, it was concluded that using sleeping parameters in regression-based tools creates real-time prediction ability in the early development stage of the design process which could contribute to lower development lead time by eliminating design iterations.

Enhance the efficiency of automated parcel sorting machines by integrating a closed-loop overflow management system, focusing on identifying current challenges, critical integration factors, and conducting a cost-benefit analysis and developing guidelines for integration to optimize warehouse operations.

To fulfil the purpose of the study, a single case study was conducted which included eight interviews and three observation visits at the case study company. A mixed-method approach was employed, combining literature review with a case study. Data collection methods included semi-structured interviews with employees, on-site observations, and analysis of operational data. The empirical data was interpreted and analyzed through thematic data analysis and triangulation to identify patterns in the collected data.

The study identified significant challenges in current linear sorting systems, including limited flexibility, inefficient overflow handling, and integration difficulties. Critical factors for implementing closed-loop systems were outlined, such as compatibility with existing sorting machine, spatial constraints, and control system integration. A cost-benefit analysis was conducted which help the company to decide whether to make design change or not, and implementation guidelines were proposed, emphasizing phased integration and continuous monitoring.

The closed-loop overflow management system has the potential to significantly improve operational efficiency, reduce labor costs, and enhance overall sorting capacity. The implementation guidelines provide a practical roadmap for industry professionals planning such projects.

The study is primarily based on a single case study, which may limit the generalizability of findings. The rapidly evolving nature of logistics technology means that some recommendations may become outdated. The cost-benefit analysis is based on certain assumptions and projections, which may need refinement with more extensive data.

As manufacturing industry seeks different strategies and technologies to respond to the ever-increasing demands in markets that prioritize versatility of products with low-volume productions, certain technologies and strategies gain more attraction and form higher acceptance levels among different sectors. Individual firms are driven by their market requirements. Various factors including product specification, assembly sequence, and manufacturing operations are central to the decisions that are made with respect to the type of technology to respond to market dynamics. Additive Manufacturing (AM) is one of the technology alternatives that has exhibited remarkable strengths in countering market disruptions. Although AM can be utilized along conventional technologies (i.e., subtracting and forming) in a hybrid context to combine advantages and offset weaknesses of each category, the arguments supporting its applications would need to be formulated rigorously to ensure investments are rightfully justified. Another alternative continuously investigated by companies is automation and more specifically, using robotics for various purposes e.g., operations like welding and painting, material handling, machine tending, etc. Both industrial robots and the applications that require a collaboration between humans and robots can be valid in this context. Considering advancements in AM and Automation and their potentials in increasing flexibility, expediting operations, and leveraging cost advantages, this paper explores how AM and automation in tandem could improve flexibility in productions. Results of this study can be used for proposing a conceptual model which will be further developed and then tested on industrial cases in future studies. While this study incorporates raw data about processing requirements in production that has been obtained via interviews with industrial companies, inputs about the technologies i.e., AM and robotics are derived from literature.

Identification of flawed assemblies and defective parts or products as early as possible is a daily struggle for manufacturing companies. With the ever-increasing complexity of assembly operations and manufacturing processes alongside the need for shorter cycle times and higher flexibility of productions, companies cannot afford to check for quality issues only at the end of the line. In-line quality inspection needs to be considered as a vital part of the process. This paper explores use of a real-time automated solution for detection of assembly defects through YOLOv8 (You Only Look Once) deep learning algorithm which is a class of convolutional neural networks (CNN). The use cases of the algorithm can be extended into detection of multiple objects within a single image to account for not only defects and missing parts in an assembly operation, but also quality assurance of the process both in manual and automatic cells. An analysis of YOLOv8 algorithm over an industrial case study for object detection shows the mean average precision (mAP) of the model on the test dataset and consequently its overall performance is extremely high. An implementation of this model would facilitate in-line quality inspection and streamline quality control tasks in complex assembly operations.

Purpose. Real-time Locating Systems (RTLS) are used to identify and locate physical assets in real-time. Essentially, the aim of RTLS is to increase process visibility and thus provide accurate process data concerning for example, lead times, cycle times and inventory control. Today, process visibility is one of the most critical aspects for manufacturing companies in their quest for higher quality and shorter lead times. Since the introduction of Industry 4.0, RTLS has received an upswing in attention in the literature. However, despite the technical advances, enterprises are struggling to fully comprehend the entire impact of RTLS. Further, when integrating RTLS and other IT systems, such as the ERP, business operations can be carried out based on real-time information, providing more value than a standalone RTLS. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is the core IT system for enterprises. The ERP is in turn divided into several modules: Manufacturing, Warehouse, Human resources, Sales & Distribution, and Finance & Accounting. Evaluating the applicability for each module will provide a holistic view on RTLS and ERP integration that has a wider perspective than previous studies on the topic. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to examine and evaluate the applicability of integrating RTLS with the various ERP modules and present a set of guidelines for RTLS and ERP integration. The guidelines will be created based on the following research questions. RQ1: How can the various ERP modules utilize RTLS data? RQ2: What barriers and enablers are there when integrating RTLS and ERP?

Research method. An extensive literature review and interviews with industry experts were conducted. Thematic analysis and thematic narrative analysis were applied to extract relevant information form the literature review and industry expert interviews. Thematic synthesis was applied to synthesize the information received from the result of the thematic analysis and thematic narrative analysis, thence answer the research questions, and create the guidelines.

Findings. Applicability was found for all ERP modules and the main barriers identified was lack of mature processes, knowledge, and cost. The guidelines created in the study included five main steps. 1) organizational enablers, 2) IT structure enablers, 3) ERP module applicability, 4) knowledge and understanding, and 5) business case generation. The guidelines were presented in text and as a picture.

Contributions. This study has contributed to research by expanding the perspective on RTLS and ERP integration further than previous studies on the topic. The study showed that all ERP modules can utilize the RTLS data to provide value for that particular module. This study contributes to industry by providing guidelines that can be utilized by managers and decision makers in their process of evaluating RTLS implementation Managers and decision makers can use these guidelines to create a fundamental understanding of how RTLS can create value for all ERP modules. This knowledge is a key to create profitable business cases. The guidelines will therefore facilitate enterprises to overcome the initial knowledge barriers and thus, contribute to the acceleration of the RTLS expansion within the industry.

This thesis investigates the current state of tool wear prediction models in machining, focusing on their limitations in accurately incorporating the complex dynamics of cutting fluids and their industrial applicability. It proposes a comprehensive evaluation framework to classify and evaluate a wide range of models, including empirical, physical, computational, and data-driven models. The study identifies the key limitations and strengths of each model category. It proposes enhancements by integrating advanced fluid dynamics and predictive modeling techniques to improve tool wear predictions' accuracy and industrial applicability.

A structured literature review was conducted to investigate and evaluate existing tool wear models and their integration with cutting fluid dynamics. This review included defining search criteria, selecting relevant studies, and assessing their quality and relevance. The study uses thematic analysis and model evaluation frameworks to classify and evaluate the models, leading to the identification of critical limitations and strengths.

The literature review and model evaluation findings revealed that empirical models, while simple and quick to implement, showed moderate accuracy and limited fluid dynamics integration. Physical models provided high accuracy in specific conditions but were computationally intensive. Computational models, particularly those using techniques like Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics(CFD), offered detailed insights and high accuracy but required significant computational resources. Data-driven models demonstrated exceptional predictive capabilities and comprehensive fluid dynamics integration but relied heavily on data availability and quality. 

The proposed enhancements include introducing non-linear elements into empirical models, incorporating simplified fluid models or empirical correlations into physical models, exploring reduced-order models (ROMs) or surrogate models for computational models, and developing robust data preprocessing and augmentation techniques for data-driven models. These enhancements aim to improve the accuracy and applicability of tool wear models in industrial machining processes, ultimately contributing to more efficient and cost-effective machining operations.

The study emphasizes the importance of a systematic and holistic approach to model evaluation and enhancement. Future research should focus on validating these proposed enhancements through empirical studies and real-world applications, ensuring their relevance and robustness in diverse industrial settings. This research offers significant potential to advance tool wear modeling, providing valuable insights for both academia and industry.

The use of automation is reshaping tasks in diverse industries, leading to increased productivity and efficiency. The manufacturing sector, in particular, has enjoyed significant advantages from automation, including enhanced quality control, waste reduction, and improved worker safety. However, while the advantages of automation in manufacturing are clear, the implementation of automation in complex manufacturing processes is not without its challenges. One such challenge is ensuring adaptability to new products. In addition, the initial investment for automation in manufacturing processes often presents a significant financial difficulty, particularly in the areas of engineering, design, and programming. The aim of this paper is to provide flexible solutions that can be adopted on any manufacturing line within a short timeframe. This type of flexible solution is referred to as Automation Packaged Solution (APS). APSs involve the deployment of robotic systems and vision technologies to automate specific tasks. The key advantage of these flexible solutions is their ability to adapt to the introduction of new products into the production line without the need for extensive reengineering and reprogramming. The approach involves designing detailed computer simulations based on the initial solutions and bringing the solution to life through an offline commissioning method. In this research, a case study was conducted at a manufacturing plant in Sweden, where two APSs were introduced to their assembly line: Precise screwing and accurate application of product labeling. These APSs play a crucial role in facilitating rapid upgrades and adjustments to automation systems, especially considering the diverse range of product models. This adaptability reduces the time and resources required for reconfiguration and contributes to enhanced operational efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and more sustainable manufacturing solutions. Moreover, it opens up the possibility of transferring these APSs to another production line if the need arises. 

Twenty first century manufacturing is characterized by customer specific products. Customers expect greater differentiation in the products that companies offer to them, thus changing the whole landscape of production. Greater the variety of products being offered to customers, greater is the complexity of shop floor operations. This complexity is translated to all the operations in the shop floor including material handling and inventory control. To overcome this situation, many manufacturers have turned to “Lean Manufacturing” to gain a competitive edge in the market by reducing costs and improving productivity in all operations throughout the shop floor.

Therefore, this purpose of this thesis is to analyze the material handling of a highly customized multi-variant product-based production system. The thesis represents a case study that was done at a caravan manufacturing company in Tenhult, Sweden. During the study, data was gathered from field notes, observations and multiple semi-structured interviews. The findings were analyzed with respect to a theoretical background which was generated through an extensive literature review that was carried out throughout the research.

Our analysis was based on a systems approach where the findings were categorized into three dimensions that affect material handling and inventory control. These dimensions are warehouse management systems, culture, and production management, which contribute to successful implementation of lean into the material handling operations and inventory control.

In conclusion, the results show that efficient material handling and inventory control can only be achieved by finding a synergy between technology, people and organization. Our results also show that soft issues like organizational culture and employee culture need to be addressed along with technological issues because only when an alignment between people, technology and business objectives and values is achieved, lean implementation can be successful. Our results also show the need for better supplier customer collaboration to reduce inventory levels and material handling operation.

Lean production is one of the proven approaches for identifying and eliminating the activities that do not add value to the customers and delivering and provide the best possible quality service to customers. Implementation of lean is deemed to be feasible in any organization regardless of its size or industry background. For initiating lean in an organization there are many tools, techniques and approaches that are available. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is one such tool that is touted as cost-effective and easy to be implemented. This thesis proposes to conduct Value Stream Analysis (VSA) at at e-commerce (online) department at the case company to understand their material and information flows by analyzing the current state and develop implementable solutions to improve the overall productivity of the online deliveries. The tasks to perform are:

· To map the current state value stream.

· To identify wastages and propose solutions to eliminate them.

· To provide productivity improvement proposals.

A mix of quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study for data collection and data analysis. This project, which is designed as a longitudinal case study that pri-marily focuses on gathering accurate, real-time data related to the product family, and on drawing a visual representation of the current materials and information flow. VSM has been implemented and the data were analysed. The results obtained from this study concludes that, VSM is an appropriate technique to initiate lean ways of work in larger firms that lacks sufficient knowledge and experience on lean. In addition to it, produc-tivity improvement proposals provided in this study are considered to be key factors in initiating lean transformation in an organization from a technical point of view while, management support and acceptance of change is necessary from an organizational point of view. This thesis will be useful to researchers, professionals and others con-cerned subject to understand the significance of value stream mapping in larger e-com-merce logistic firms.

Today’s global market and growing competition set an increasing strain to manufacturing companies. Shorter product lifecycles automatically lead to shorter production ramp up periods and, therefore, set a higher strain on the manufacturing systems. The concept of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) was developed in the early 1990s and has now gained more interest than ever. An RMS is designed to quickly respond to changes in market demand, by adapting its functionality as well as its capacity to the current market requirements. In order to achieve this, an RMS is characterised by six core characteristics: modularity, integrability, diagnosability, convertibility, scalability and customisation. By complying with these characteristics, the manufacturing system can meet the required responsiveness to functionality and capacity changes. Academia has been focusing on the development and design of new RMSs, however, there is a lack in research on converting existing manufacturing systems towards reconfigurability. Additionally, few models assessing a manufacturing system’s current state in terms of reconfigurability are available in literature. The existing reconfigurability assessment models were proven to be rather theoretical and difficult to use by practitioners in industry. Therefore, the need for a reconfigurability assessment model applicable in industry arose. This study focuses on the analysis of enablers of a reconfigurability manufacturing systems as well as on assessing the reconfigurability of an existing manufacturing system in an industrial setting. For this purpose, a detailed reconfigurability assessment model has been developed, based on literature studies and a case study at a case company. A focus of the development of the model has been set on usability in industry. The outcome was an assessment model developed in Microsoft Excel that gives an overview on the reconfigurability of each characteristic as well as the manufacturing system’s overall reconfigurability. The model was subsequently tested and verified at the case company. The final reconfigurability assessment model is presented and explained at the end of this study. This study shows, that through the use of theory about RMS and input from industry it was possible to develop a current state assessment model regarding reconfigurability. To make the model generalisable and adaptable to different industrial settings, further testing in different manufacturing fields and research within RMS is required.

In the present world scenario, the rapid industrialization and growth of manufacturing sector has led to the rise of large number of companies focusing on increase in profitability for sustaining the company’s profit margin at a higher level. While most of the companies fail to differentiate between productivity, profitability and performance as all the three growth indicators have different factors affecting them. The productivity of a system is evaluated through the ratio of output and input whereas the profitability is evaluated by measuring the capital flow. But the performance of any system is measured by the speed, quality and time consumed for delivery of a product. Thus, the preliminary growth indicator to be focused by any company must be productivity as it defines the effective input and efficient output of a system or production line and further provide attention for performance. Any productive system to function smoothly must include less amount of wastes, these wastes need not be a particular form. According to lean philosophy there are basically eight wastes arising in a system which has to be considered for elimination or reduction preferably. These wastes not only affect a particular process, while causes negative effects on the performance of entire system by causing delays in the process which increases nonvalue added time and reduces the actual operating time of a process. The present study focuses on exploring lean philosophy for identifying the existing delays of a production system and to further investigate the root causes influencing these delays which effect delivery of product. This study involves a deductive approach of qualitative type of research and the methods used for data collection includes a single case study with systematic literature review of data on which analysis is carried out and derived results are concluded in the final chapter of this research. The conclusion will be based on the results obtained from analysis of data carried out with the aid of tools existing under lean philosophy. The research is concluded by suggesting the solution for reducing delays utilizing simple tools of lean philosophy which can be utilized by manufacturing firms with effective utilization of existing machinery, men and methods and low investment of capital.

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. 

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.

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.

To enable manufacturing firms adapting their manufacturing capabilities to meet the market demands in a cost-efficient way the concept of reconfigurable manufacturing was initiated. A majority of the research within this field targeting production development has been focused on greenfield development methods, enabling the developers to ignore context and constraints that brownfield development methods cannot. The greenfield focus in reconfigurability research has resulted in how to find optimal solutions to reconfiguration problems. Taking a brownfield focus on reconfigurable manufacturing development would enable to move step-by-step towards a reconfigurable manufacturing strategy instead of the all-or-nothing approach of greenfield development methods. This study investigates through a literature review what assessment tools and methods that exists in literature, and classifies them into four categories, i.e. Configuration evaluation, Element of evaluation, Pre-design evaluation, and Potential evaluation. It is found that there only exist two assessment tools for potential evaluation. Through a multiple case study, the potential evaluation process is evaluated, and three gaps is identified, i.e. lack of connection to strategy, lack of predefined goals for reconfigurability, and the difficulty in interpreting the result of the analysis. These gaps are then address in a new conceptual assessment process for assessing the potential of reconfigurability. The conceptual assessment process links the six reconfigurability characteristics throughout the whole assessment process to link manufacturing strategy to the improvement suggestions.

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.

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 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.

In the era of moving towards a Circular Economy (CE), companies are facing challenges in redesigning their supply chains, towards managing i.e., recycled material and new requirements. Today, the textile industry is one of the segments that affects environmental sustainability most. Therefore, this paper’s purpose is to explore how non-virgin textile materials challenging the purchasing role in a circular industry, especially related to the perspective from Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs). And the resulting research question is, therefore, what different challenges must a purchasing organization manage related to textile products in a circular industry.

The circular economy (CE) concept seeks to minimize resource input, waste generation, emissions, and energy waste by slowing, narrowing, and closing material and energy cycles. Various circular strategies exist to reduce the consumption of virgin materials and minimize waste production. These strategies, often referred to as “Rs” (e.g., Reduce, Reuse, Recycling, etc.) or R-frameworks can be described as different strategies to transition from a linear model to CE. The R-frameworks encompasses a range of options aimed at preserving the value of resources within the system. Even though there exists an abundance of literature about CE and the Rs, we have neither found a common definition of R-frameworks, nor a distinct adaptation of the Rs for an ETO context. The purpose of the paper is to explore how circular strategies can be applied to ETO products. To fulfil this purpose, illustrative cases are used to explore the application of circular strategies, operationalized by R-frameworks, in two different ETO-contexts.

This chapter focuses on temporary intersectoral mobility positions and presents a checklist, with activities, that can be a support for both individuals and host organisations before, during, and after the mobility position. This chapter is relevant for universities, non-academic organisations, and individual academics that are interested in intersectoral mobility. However, we have taken the university perspective in this chapter; we have studied academics with a PhD degree, working at either a university or in an organisation in another sector. However, the individuals can also be non-academics, working at a university or in an organisation in another sector.

Circularity through remanufacturing

Remanufacturing can be described as a process of bringing used products to “like-new” functional state. It is an industrial process whereby products referred as cores are restored to useful life. During this process the core pass through a number of remanufacturing steps, e.g., inspection, disassembly, part replacement/refurbishment, cleaning, reassembly, and testing to ensure it meets the desired product standards’.

Remanufacturing involves not only new processes but also necessitates changes in product design, the adoption of new business models, advancements in information management, and the inclusion of sustainability assessments. These assessments ensure that the new designs and circular business models implemented are not only circular but also sustainable. All these aspects form a crucial part of the REMARKABLE project, contributing to the development of a comprehensive remanufacturing ecosystem.

The purpose of the REMARKABLE project is to support manufacturers to become more resilient, circular, and sustainable through remanufacturing and contribute to a more efficient use ofresources.

Project activities and initial results

The REMARKABLE project involves six highly engaged manufacturing companies from a variety of sectors that will collaborate during 2022-2025. At first, workshops have taken place with each company to identify needs, challenges and ambitions. In addition, five student projects have been conducted during spring 2022 along with two study visits at participating companies.

Initial company discussions shows that remanufacturing tends to question current business models and generate grounds for circular business models development (e.g. leasing, rental, deposit system). Remanufacturing often also questions the current value network and the actors in it, as remanufacturing flows can generate need of new business relationships whilst maintaining current business models.

Remanufacturing poses challenges due to small batch sizes, low automation, and reliance on manual labor. Flexibility and specific capabilities are needed to handle uncertainties, complexity in planning, and ensure efficiency. Tools, methods, and frameworks are necessary to effectively balance all three pillars of sustainability. The development process of remanufacturing systems plays a critical role in achieving sustainability performance which also requires effective information management.

Commonly, the products are not adapted for remanufacturing. Within the REMARKABLE project we are investigating how to make the products easier to remanufacture by design. This includes for example aspects of making the product easier to clean and disassemble.

In this paper we consider finite element approaches to computing the mean curvature vector and normal at the vertices of piecewise linear triangulated surfaces. In particular, we adopt a stabilization technique which allows for first order L2-convergence of the mean curvature vector and apply this stabilization technique also to the computation of continuous, recovered, normals using L2-projections of the piecewise constant face normals. Finally, we use our projected normals to define an adaptive mesh refinement approach to geometry resolution where we also employ spline techniques to reconstruct the surface before refinement. We compare our results to previously proposed approaches.

Augmented reality smart glasses (ARSG) have been available as a commercial product since 2015. Many potential usage areas have been identified, including industrial use. The needs from industry have evolved, with more emphasis being put on sustainability. While ARSG can help improve efficiency and sustainability, there are also similarly associated costs to their implementation and use. This paper aims to present a process for how to choose ARSG for specific use cases as assembly operator support while considering the sustainability of their implementation. A narrative review of the literature was made to identify the current understanding of the environmental impact of ARSG, as well as what has been considered in regards to ARSG being integrated into a manufacturing environment. The analysis of the literature resulted in a proposed decision process. The decision process serves as a baseline for how to guide the decision of whether ARSG could be a suitable solution and, if so, what aspects to consider in the choosing of the ARSG model. Future work includes collaboration with industry to further improve the decision process based on empirical input.

In this note, we derive an approximation for the mean curvature normal vector on vertices of triangulated surface meshes from the Young-Laplace equation and the force balance principle. We then demonstrate that the approximation expression from our physics-based derivation is equivalent to the discrete Laplace-Beltrami operator approach in the literature. This work, in addition to providing an alternative expression to calculate the mean curvature normal vector, can be further extended to other mesh structures, including non-triangular and heterogeneous meshes. 

The rapid rise in global population and market demands have mandated industries to introduce better and quality products to meet up their rushing needs. However, achiev-ing such goals need optimal production system and robust strategies. Exploring in depth it can be visualized that most of the manufacturing set ups suffers losses or relatively lower benefits due to improper and high wastages. Hence it is very important for man-ufacturing industries to explore the techniques which help them to improve their pro-duction system. The key techniques from Lean Manufacturing (LM) such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM) and Ishikawa diagram were explored in this work for enhanc-ing production capacity, reducing rework, reducing wastages and arriving to a well-defined optimal process flow which in turn help in achieving higher productivity. How-ever, the implementation of Lean and Value stream mapping depends on the production scale and has its own significance to different manufacturing setup. With that motive, in this thesis work the emphasis was made on exploring VSM technique for better pro-duction optimization in manufacturing sector.

In the era of globalization, every company is trying its best to sustain its company’s name and their product in its respective market.

The overreach goal of the thesis to optimize the cost in the production system using lean manufacturing. To attain the primary goal of the thesis, three layered approach has been carried out.

Firstly, the non-value-added activities in the shop floor has been identified. The tools like VSM and spaghetti diagram is used to identify the non-value-added activities

Secondly, the lead time of a particular product has been calculated for a particular product. The lean tools like JIT,5s, TQM, TPM has been used to reduce the lead time. TQM is used to identify the quality issues, TPM is used to identify the maintenance problems and JIT &5s is used to identify the problems in tool arrangement and delivery of the raw materials.

The last part of the thesis is to measure the cost-effectiveness by implementing lean manufacturing to produce a particular product family. Tools like Activity based costing is used to allocate the cost involved in the various activities that can be measured by the cost drivers and cost pool. To measure the performance of the production system OEE is used in this thesis

Metal cutting industry, a key sector in manufacturing, is grappling with the transition to a "net-zero industry" to mitigate climate change and reach sustainable practices. Rare and exclusive materials make recycling and reusing cutting tools more pressing and necessitate efficient circular material flows. The purpose of this research is to explore how collaboration can facilitate circularity in the cutting tool industry. It examines the involvement of stakeholders and their roles in achieving a circular lifecycle for cutting tools. To investigate the interaction between metal cutting tools suppliers and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), this study used a mixed-methods approach that includes data from literature, interviews, and document study. Empirical data is gathered to investigate the factors driving circularity and to identify important participants in the lifecycle of cutting tools. The study revealed challenges to the current situation including underutilization of tools due to the absence of a standardization process and subjective operator judgment, as well as lack of traceability of the tools both internally at SMEs and between the stakeholders. Moreover, by mapping the current actors, the study found cutting tool traceability, undirected decision-making throughout tool lifecycles, and limited awareness of circularity dimensions are key challenges. To handle these challenges. 9Rs circular economy framework used to investigate the possible role of collaboration emerges as a vital enabler for circularity, with SMEs playing a significant role. Moreover, the involvement of machine operators, often overlooked actors, is found to be crucial in influencing circular outcomes. Digital solutions and collaborative strategies that involve CNC machine suppliers and intermittent refurbishing business are pivotal in overcoming the challenges identified, namely, traceability and human subjectivity in tool condition assessment. The study demonstrates that technology providers, intermediary refurbishing businesses, SMEs and other stakeholders operating in the metal cutting tools sector must be involved throughout their lifetime to avoid suboptimal results, exchange information, and inspire industrial actors to support the circular economy.

Riding lawnmowers is a tool that has the same main function as all other mowers, to cut the grass. Since the first lawn care product were introduces new functions has not been developed. Togheter with SIGMA in Jönköping a new design concept is developed to find new ways to interact with the product but at the same time communicate clearly that the product is developed towards the company Husqvarna.

Today's society is characterized by a high degree of change where the manufacturing systems are affected by both internal and external factors. To adapt to current manufacturing requirements in the form of short lead-time, more variants, low and fluctuating volumes, in a cost-efficient manner, new approaches are needed. As the global market and its uncertainties for products and its lifecycles change, a concept called 'reconfigurable manufacturing system' has been developed. The idea is to design a manufacturing system for rapid structural change in both hardware and software to be responsive to capacity and functionality. A company's development towards the concept is often based on a strategy of incremental investments. In this situation, the challenges are to prioritize the right project and maximize the performance as well as the financial efficiency of a multi-approach problem. The report is based on three different issues. Partly how to standardize relevant performance-based metrics to measure current conditions, how new performance-based metrics can be developed in collaboration with reconfigurability characteristics, and set a direction for how decision models can be used to optimize step-based investments. The study is structured as an explorative study with qualitative methods such as semi-structured interviews and document study to get in-depth knowledge. Related literature addresses concepts in search areas such as reconfigurable manufacturing system, key performance indicators, investment decisions, and manufacturing readiness levels.

The findings are extracted from interviews and document studies that generate a focal company setting within the automotive industry, which acts as the foundation for further analysis and decisions throughout the thesis. The analysis results in sixteen performance measurements where new measures been created for product flexibility, productionvolume flexibility, material handling flexibility, reconfiguration quality and diagnosability using reconfigurability characteristics. A conceptual decision support model is introduced with an underlying seven-step investment process, analyzing lifecycle cost, risk triggered events in relation to cost, and performance measurements. The discussion chapter describes how different approaches are used during the project that has been revised by internal and external factors. Improvement possibilities regarding method choice and the aspects of credibility, transferability, dependability, and conformability are discussed.

Furthermore, the authors argue about the analysis process and how the result has been affected by circumstances and choices. The study concludes that a three-pronged approach is needed to validate the investment decision in terms of system performance changes, cost, and uncertainty. The report also helps to understand which performance-based metrics are relevant for evaluating manufacturing systems based on operational goals and manufacturing requirements.

Organisational ambidexterity is considered a key to company survival and performance. Despite this, organisational ambidexterity is still a poorly understood phenomenon, especially in an SME context. The purpose of this study was therefore to investigate how the compliance with ambidextrous elements is perceived at different levels in manufacturing SMEs, to increase the understanding of organisational ambidexterity in this context. The empirical data was collected through a combination of questionnaire and interview. The case companies in this report perceive that they comply stronger with contextual elements than with structural elements. The strong compliance with contextual elements is motivated by the lack of hierarchies, flexibility in the company, different management structure and low number of employees. This allows employees to perform the contextual elements such as initiative-taking, cooperating, brokering and multitasking. The structural elements including e.g. vision, values, strategies, senior team responsibility and alignment are perceived differently at different  hierarchal levels, indicating that there are subcultures within the hierarchal levels within a company. The biggest difference can be found between the middle managers and the top managers,. Workers perceive that they are not included in explorationb within the company, and that the exploration occur more sporadically than those for exploitation. The definitions of exploration and exploitation vary between the companies which results in a lack of consensus. This makes it difficult for the companies to perform the changes necessary in order to develop and achieve long-term sustainable growth i.e. economical sustainability. The managerial implication of this report concerns four actions: (1) create a common definition for exploration, (2) develop goals for exploration, (3) communicate for buy-in and (4) involve all employees.

The textile industry includes SMEs, which play an important role worldwide in the economy and society. However, their activities can contribute to some environmental issues, like climate change, and resource scarcity, which are lately at the center of attention. Due to increasing pressure from governments and society regarding sustainability issues, textile SMEs need to become sustainable, and one solution to achieve sustainability is transitioning towards circularity in production. Nevertheless, textile SMEs encounter numerous challenges and enablers on their journey towards circularity, particularly in areas like production systems where knowledge remains insufficient. Thus, this paper aims to identify the challenges and enablers faced by textile SMEs in transitioning towards circular production systems. This study is based on a literature study, workshops, and interviews with Swedish textile SMEs. The results show that textile SMEs encounter seven challenges towards circular production systems, including a lack of knowledge and awareness, limited resources, limited access to technology, complexity of input and finished product, a lack of proper regulations and strategy, a lack of collaboration among stakeholders, and a lack of interest and support from stakeholders and customers. In contrast, education, collaboration, supportive regulations, and circular production system design can be considered as enablers for their transition.

The textile industry has a significant environmental impact while at the same time playing an important role in society. There is a need to improve the textile industry's sustainability. Textile SMEs encounter numerous challenges to reach sustainability. This paper aims at recognizing the challenges by collecting, analyzing, and discussing some theoretical and empirical data. At the end of this paper, six main groups of challenges are presented: lack of stakeholder knowledge about sustainability, lack of resources, lack of communication, and effective legislation. Also, recognizing the relevant needs and finding some conceptual solutions for textile SMEs to overcome the challenges and reach more sustainability are considered as future work of this study.