Change in Manufacturing – Research and Industrial Challenges

Change, in products and systems, has become a constant in manufacturing. This sector continues to witness major market shifts, introduction of new materials and processing technologies as well as great changes in consumer preferences and productsvariety. This presents significant challenges to industrialists, researchers and educators alike. Changes can most often be anticipated but some go beyond the design range. This requires providing innovative change enablers and adaptation mechanisms to mitigate the effects of, and capitalize on, changes in manufacturing. Experiential research and learning is essential to enhance responsiveness and prepare production leaders of the future. The training and experimentation could be significantly enhanced if manufacturing systems could be brought into the laboratories of academic and research institutions. This paper describes the latest state-of-the art fully reconfigurable “plug & play” changeable and flexible “Factory-in-the-Lab” infrastructure and supporting design innovation and advanced research environment. It discusses the use of the

iFactory

and

iDesign

system to address these challenges and develop many key technologies and strategies for success. It presents severa novel approaches and methods for achieving the desired balance in the wide spectrum of variation in markets, products, processes, systems and manufacturing enterprises.