ABSTRACT
When companies embark on flexible or cellular manufacturing strategies, concurrent engineering is crucial to the success of lean production, build-to-order (BTO), and mass customization. Products not concurrently engineered for flexible environments may impede implementations, diminish the payback, or even thwart success entirely. For lean production, build-to-order, and mass customization (MC), product portfolio planning must expand its focus to ensure that products are developed in synergistic families that can be produced on-demand on flexible lines. To accomplish this, product families need to be structured so that all products use standard parts and materials on the same flexible equipment without setup delays. Products are designed to eliminate the following setups in manufacturing: part setup, fixturing setup, tool setup, and lengthy instructions. Computer numerically controlled machine tools offer vast opportunities to eliminate machining setup. Product families must be based on all the following criteria: customer/marketing feasibility, operational flexibility, supply chain responsiveness, and design versatility.
