A Methodology for Identification of Reconfigurability Enablers and Application in a Manufacturing System

Manufacturing systems are continually challenged by evolving market demands, environmental constraints, and regulatory uncertainties. Manufacturers therefore need to develop and implement the reconfigurability capability to rapidly and cost-effectively adapt to new requirements throughout their life cycles. To this end, reconfigurability enablers —physical or logical factors that facilitate such adjustments— are needed. To support the identification and implementation of necessary reconfigurability enablers in existing factories and manufacturing systems, this study proposes a structured methodology to identify and select reconfigurability enablers and applies it within a case study in a brownfield factory. In the case study, an existing factory was analyzed. The current configuration was investigated, including the characterization of strategic requirements and anticipated trends. The analysis allowed to identify and select reconfigurability enablers for the manufacturer. The preliminary findings from the case study underscore the need to further implement and validate the methodology in industrial cases. The proposed methodology provides a foundation for future research on the systematic design of reconfigurability enablers. This study emphasizes the necessity for systematically designing reconfigurability enablers at various levels of detail, highlighting how enablers at workstation and system levels influence each other.