Reconfigurable Strategies for Manufacturing Setups to confront Mass Customization Challanges

Abstract

The manufacturing industry is distinguished by regionalization and individualization of products accompaniedby varying customer demands, faster time to market, short innovation cycles and product life cycles. Theintroduction of new materials, new processes as well as struggle to achieve economic and efficient use ofresources has raised complexities to achieve quick and optimal configuration in manufacturing systems. Toresolve the complexities, the reconfiguration at different levels in the manufacturing system is presented byusing three distinct examples. The first example refers to reconfigurable joining cell design for versatile joiningof automotive subassemblies. Second example refers to strategy for quick reconfiguration of robots for precisemachining applications. The third example elaborates fast calibration of monitoring system in joiningprocesses to enable fast reconfiguration of sensors in commissioning as well as in the maintenance.