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During design of reconfigurable manufacturing systems, manufacturing companies need to select and implement the right enablers of reconfigurability in accordance with the specific requirements being present in the manufacturing setting. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to investigate enablers of reconfigurability in terms of their importance in industry, current level of implementation in industry, and significant differences in their implementation and criticality across different manufacturing settings.

A questionnaire survey is conducted, in order to provide generalizable empirical evidence across various industries and manufacturing types.

The findings indicate that the level of implementation of the reconfigurability enablers is rudimentary, while their criticality is perceived higher than the current level of implementation. Moreover, significant differences regarding implementation and criticality of mobility, scalability, and convertibility were found for companies with varying degrees of manual work, make-to-stock production, and varying production volume, industry type and organization size.

Main limitations of the research cover the relatively small sample size and non-random sampling method applied, primarily limited to one country, which could be increased to further extent the findings reported in this paper.

The findings indicate that the importance and implementation of reconfigurability enablers is contingent on the manufacturing setting. Thus, the research presented in this paper provides valuable knowledge in regard to aiding a paradigm shift in industry and help companies design manufacturing systems with the right reconfigurability enablers.

This paper expands research on manufacturing system design for changeability and reconfigurability, by explicitly considering these as capabilities that can be enabled in various ways for various purposes in different manufacturing contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to present methods for assessing and mapping the complexity of products and their assembly. In cases of complexity of assembly it is important to consider and model at the product design stages when only data about individual parts/products and their assembly attributes are known. Assessing the complexity of assembly systems, based on the attributes of their components, is an essential step towards designing them for the least complexity.

This paper presents a mapping method between the complexity of products and their variants and complexity of the system needed to assemble them. A method has also been developed to assess and compare the complexity of assembly systems based on the characteristics of their physical components for comparison and re‐design to reduce complexity.

The complexity dependency matrix estimates the average assembly equipment complexity for a certain product based on the interactions between parts handling, insertion and assembly attributes and assembly system functions. An automobile engine piston, domestic appliance drive, car fan motor and a three‐pin electric power plug products were used to demonstrate the application of the developed methodology.

The developed methods can be used by products and assembly systems designers to identify and alleviate major sources of complexity.

Complexity is the main challenge for present and future manufacturers. Assembly complexity heavily affects a product’s final quality in the fully automated assembly system. This paper aims to propose a new method to assess the complexity of modern automated assembly system at the assembly design stage with respect to the characteristics of both manufacturing system and each single component to be mounted. Aiming at validating the predictive model, a regression model is additionally presented to estimate the statistic relationship between the real assembly defect rate and predicted complexity of the fully automated assembly system.

The research herein extends the S. N. Samy and H. A. ElMaraghy’s model and seeks to redefine the predictive model using fuzzy evaluation against a fully automated assembly process at the assembly design stages. As the evaluation based on the deterministic scale with accurate crisp number can hardly reflect the uncertainty of the judgement, fuzzy linguistic variables are used to measure the interaction among influence factors. A dependency matrix is proposed to estimate the assembly complexity with respect to the interactions between mechanic design, electric design and process factors and main functions of assembly system. Furthermore, a complexity attributes matrix of single part is presented, to map the relationship between all individual parts to be mounted and three major factors mentioned in the dependency matrix.

The new proposed model presents a formal quantification to predict assembly complexity. It clarifies that how the attributes of assembly system and product components complicate the assembly process and in turn influence the manufacturing performance. A center bolt valve in the camshaft of continue variable valve timing is used to demonstrate the application of the developed methodology in this study.

This paper presents a developed method, which can be used to improve the design solution of assembly concept and optimize the process flow with the least complexity.

The purpose of this paper is to present a decisions support tool that can be applied in initial stages of design, for evaluating the investment feasibility of changeable and reconfigurable manufacturing design concepts, based on future demand predictions and their uncertainties. A quantitative model is proposed, which evaluates the discounted value of capital and operating costs of changeable manufacturing design concepts, based on essential characteristics regarding their type and extent of changeability.

Quantitative empirical modeling is applied, where model conceptualization, validation, and implementation are central elements, using two Danish manufacturing companies as cases.

The applicability of the model is demonstrated in the two case companies, highlighting differences in type, extent, and level of feasible changeability, as a result of differences in product and production characteristics.

Further studies of changeability implementation should be conducted across industrial fields in order to generalize findings.

There is currently limited support for the conceptual design phase of changeable and reconfigurable manufacturing, where critical decisions regarding type, extent, and level of changeability must be made, regardless of high degrees of uncertainty about future demand scenarios.

This paper expands previous research on design for changeability and reconfigurability, by explicitly considering changeability as a capability that can be enabled in various ways for various purposes in different industrial contexts. The proposed model and the case implementations provide important knowledge on the transition toward changeability in industry.

A knowledge‐based system for forming quadrilateral finite elements, XFORMQ, was developed at the Centre of Flexible Manufacturing Research and Development of McMaster University, Canada. It automatically forms quadrilateral elements of good quality in conjunction with existing triangular mesh generators. XFORMQ can model geometries as complicated as those handled by triangular mesh generators. It allows for pre‐specified element sizes and rapid transition of element density. The concepts of ‘layer’ and ‘polygon patterns’, which considerably simplify the mesh generation rules and ensure the quality of formed elements, are introduced. Several test cases with different degrees of difficulties were used to evaluate XFORMQ's capabilities with satisfactory results. XFORMQ has the potential of generating meshes arising from the adaptive finite element analysis with quadrilateral elements.

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the state of the art of applications of organisational systematics and manufacturing cladistics in terms of strengths and weaknesses and introduce new generic cladistic and hierarchical classifications of discrete manufacturing systems. These classifications are the basis for a practical web-based expert system and diagnostic benchmarking tool.

There were two stages for the research methods, with eight re-iterative steps: one for theory building, using secondary and observational data, producing conceptual classifications; the second stage for theory testing and theory development, using quantitative data from 153 companies and 510 manufacturing systems, producing the final factual cladogram. Evolutionary relationships between 53 candidate manufacturing systems, using 13 characters with 84 states, are hypothesised and presented diagrammatically. The manufacturing systems are also organised in a hierarchical classification with 13 genera, 6 families and 3 orders under one class of discrete manufacturing.

This work addressed several weaknesses of current manufacturing cladistic classifications which include the lack of an explicit out-group comparison, limited conceptual cladogram development, limited use of characters and that previous classifications are specific to sectors. In order to correct these limitations, the paper first expands on previous work by producing a more generic manufacturing system classification. Second, it describes a novel web-based expert system for the practical application of the discrete manufacturing system.

The classifications form the basis for a practical web-based expert system and diagnostic benchmarking tool, but also have a novel use in an educational context as it simplifies and relationally organises extant manufacturing system knowledge.

The research employed a novel re-iterative methodology for both theory building, using observational data, producing the conceptual classification, and through theory testing developing the final factual cladogram that forms the basis for the practical web-based expert system and diagnostic tool.

The purpose of this paper is to present an organized review of existing research on reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS). The paper considers majority of the prominent research articles in the domain of RMS published ever since RMS was envisaged in 1997.

The paper systematically reviews, classifies and analyses the published literature on postulations and design of RMSs. The general observations from the literature and research gaps recognized thereon are highlighted at the end of each section/sub-section.

The paper reveals important aspects related to RMS research since its inception. It also recognizes the areas of RMS research requiring more focus. The study also highlights open issues and future directions for further research.

The literature in the domain of RMS has so far been narrow. This paper reviews the prominent research in this field and presents an overview of its conceptual developments and various mathematical models for the RMS design and its optimization so far developed by the researchers. Further, manufacturing advancements and future directions have also been proposed for the efficient execution of RMS paradigm in manufacturing industries.

The paper provides an organized listing of published research work in the field of RMS. This work will provide an insight to the researchers, practitioners and others related directly or indirectly to this field to develop and understand better strategies for supervising and controlling the smooth implementation of RMS.

Uncertainties in manufacturing and changing customer demands force manufacturing industries to adopt new strategies, such as the reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS). To improve the implementation and performance of RMS, it is necessary to review the available literature and identify future trends in this field. This paper aims to analyze existing literature and to see trends in RMS-related research.

The systematic literature review and analysis of RMS-related research papers from 1999 to 2020 is carried out in this literature. The selected studies are analyzed based on the year of publication, journals, publishers, active authors, research design, countries, enablers, barriers, performance evaluation parameters and universities.

After the analysis of selected RMS-related research papers, the top countries, universities, journals, publishers and authors are identified in this domain. Research themes and trends in research are identified in this study. Besides, it has been noted that there is a need for further research in this domain and for the creation of a generalized framework that can guide researchers and practitioners to increase RMS adoption.

Research insights, guidance and observations from this paper are provided to RMS-related researchers and practitioners. Important research gaps are identified in this study, which can provide direction for future research and trends in RMS research.

The study presented focuses mainly on the method of collecting, organizing, capturing, interpreting and analyzing data to provide more insight into RMS to identify future trends in research.

The objective of this study is to propose a sequence of implementation of the core characteristics of reconfigurability: modularity, integrability, diagnosability, adaptability and customization. For this purpose, the relationships among the core characteristics and Industry 4.0 technologies are analyzed as well as the impacts of one core characteristic on another.

This study presented tests and validated two hypothesized models based on the literature. This paper was based on a questionnaire survey. Portuguese manufacturing companies were the sampling frame. In total, 600 questionnaires were distributed and a total of 112 responses were eligible for statistical processing, representing a response rate of 18.7%. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to hypothesize the sequence of implementation of the core characteristics of reconfigurability.

The findings presented a roadmap to implement reconfigurability, which implies significant managerial contributions on how to make the transition from conventional to reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMSs). This highlights the importance of the sequence of implementation of the core characteristics in order to make the most of each to achieve reconfigurability.

Implementing reconfigurability is crucial to manufacturing companies to respond to changes in production requirements and market fluctuations quickly. However, there is a gap between theory and practice in regard to achieve reconfigurability in existing manufacturing systems. This gap includes (1) understanding the type of relationships among the core characteristics of reconfigurability, (2) understanding the influence that one core characteristic has on another and (3) establishing a sequence of implementation for the core characteristics. This study makes a contribution to fill this gap in the research area.