This grant provides funding for the development of design tools for layouts of factories that either operate in highly volatile environments or produce a large variety of products. For these factories, being able to quickly reconfigure resources to meet changing needs is critical. Therefore, a focus of this research is on identifying layout configurations that are highly flexible, modular and reconfigurable. Because the performance criteria of the flexible factory are different from those of the traditional factory (for example, scope is more important than scale, responsiveness is more important than cost, and reconfigurability is more important than efficiency), the existing performance metrics used to evaluate layouts reflect poorly these priorities. Consequently, this research will develop new evaluation criteria for layout design that explicitly account for flexibility and responsiveness. Since the operational performance of factories (for example, the ability to produce a large variety of products, manufacture products in small batches, offer customers short lead times, or introduce new products frequently) can be directly affected by layout, this research will also develop analytical models that allow better understanding of the relationship between layout configuration and operational performance.
If successful, this research will identify new layout configurations that are more suitable for the emerging needs of the agile factory. These layouts will be flexible, modular and more easily reconfigurable. Flexibility, modularity, and reconfigurability, will save factories the need to redesign their layouts each time their operating requirements change or new products are introduced. The new design tools will provide systematic and efficient methods for configuring and managing these new layouts. Being able to design layouts with the operational requirements of agility in mind (for example, higher variety, shorter time-to-market and shorter manufacturing lead times) will mean greater competitive advantage.
