Condition based factory planning

Consecutive planning approaches, common in the theory of factory design today, fail to support planning projects in practice. They neglect the interactions and dynamics in the planning task and project as well as the subjectivity introduced by the different stakeholders. Unconsidered interactions, conflicting motives and inflexible project structure lead to time-consuming, expensive and late adaptations. Local optimisation and deviations from the overall objectives are consequences of insufficient synchronisation and coordination. The approach proposed in this paper strives for a paradigm shift from consecutive processes to a modular, parallel approach, which can be reconfigured according to the specific conditions of the planning project and enterprise. This new approach integrates the modularisation and configuration of the planning process as well as aspects of management of instability and second order observation. It has been successfully employed in industry cases, which will be introduced in this paper.