Title: An evaluation method for the identification of flexible production technologies for Mass Customisation in the automotive industry

Authors: Gunther Schuh, Elke Baessler, Jens Meier

Addresses: Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at Aachen, University of Technology, University of Aachen, Steinbachstr. 53, Aachen 52074, Germany. ' Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at Aachen, University of Technology, University of Aachen, Steinbachstr. 53, Aachen 52074, Germany. ' Laboratory for Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) at Aachen, University of Technology, University of Aachen, Steinbachstr. 53, Aachen 52074, Germany

Abstract: Influenced by the individualisation of customer requirements, increasing saturation and segmentation of markets, enterprises have to bridge the gap between mass production and customer-individual adaption production. Therefore Mass Customisation is an appropriate strategy. This paper shows an evaluation method to identify production technologies, which can be characterised by flexibility as well as economic efficiency. First step of this method is the identification of the customer requirements. Based on this a conjoint-analysis to classify the customer requirements are performed. Third step is the description of criteria to implement a technology-database. After this, the developed evaluation method for identification of flexible production-technologies for Mass Customisation is described. Last step is the verification of the developed method by an example in the automotive industry.

Keywords: mass customisation; flexible production; customer requirements; automobile industry; flexible manufacturing; manufacturing flexibility; automotive production; technology database; evaluation; economic efficiency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMTM.2007.012154

International Journal of Manufacturing Technology and Management, 2007 Vol.10 No.4, pp.347 - 359

Published online: 25 Jan 2007 *

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