“Changeable and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems” discusses key strategies for success in the changing manufacturing environment. Changes can often be anticipated but some go beyond the design range, requiring innovative change enablers and adaptation mechanisms. The book presents the new concept of Changeability as an umbrella framework that encompasses paradigms such as agility, adaptability, flexibility and reconfigurability. It provides the definitions and classification of key terms in this new field, and emphasizes the required physical/hard and logical/soft change enablers. The book presents cutting edge technologies and the latest research, as well as future directions to help manufacturers stay competitive. It contains original contributions and results from senior international experts, together with industrial applications. The book serves as a comprehensive reference for professional engineers, managers, and academics in manufacturing, industrial and mechanical engineering.

“Changeable and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems” discusses key strategies for success in the changing manufacturing environment. Changes can often be anticipated but some go beyond the design range, requiring innovative change enablers and adaptation mechanisms. The book presents the new concept of Changeability as an umbrella framework that encompasses paradigms such as agility, adaptability, flexibility and reconfigurability. It provides the definitions and classification of key terms in this new field, and emphasizes the required physical/hard and logical/soft change enablers. The book presents cutting edge technologies and the latest research, as well as future directions to help manufacturers stay competitive. It contains original contributions and results from senior international experts, together with industrial applications. The book serves as a comprehensive reference for professional engineers, managers, and academics in manufacturing, industrial and mechanical engineering.

The first Digital Enterprise Technology (DET) International Conference was held in Durham, UK in 2002 and the second DET Conference in Seattle, USA in 2004. Sponsored by CIRP (College International pour la Recherche en Productique), the third DET Conference took place in Setúbal, Portugal in 2006. Digital Enterprise Technology: Perspectives and Future Challenges is an edited volume based on this conference. Topics include: distributed and collaborative design, process modeling and process planning, advanced factory equipment and layout design and modeling, physical-to-digital environment integrators, enterprise integration technologies, and entrepreneurship in DET.

This book features state-of-the-art contributions from two well-established conferences: Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual Production Conference (CARV2020) and Mass Customization and Personalization Conference (MCPC2020). Together, they focus on the joint design, development, and management of products, production systems, and business for sustainable customization and personalization. The book covers a large range of topics within this domain, ranging from industrial success factors to original contributions within the field.

The changing manufacturing environment requires more responsive and adaptable manufacturing systems. The theme of the 4th International Conference on Changeable, Agile, Reconfigurable and Virtual production (CARV2011) is “Enabling Manufacturing Competitiveness and Economic Sustainability”. Leading edge research and best implementation practices and experiences, which address these important issues and challenges, are presented. The proceedings include advances in manufacturing systems design, planning, evaluation, control and evolving paradigms such as mass customization, personalization, changeability, re-configurability and flexibility. New and important concepts such as the dynamic product families and platforms, co-evolution of products and systems, and methods for enhancing manufacturing systems’ economic sustainability and prolonging their life to produce more than one product generation are treated. Enablers of change in manufacturing systems, production volume and capability scalability and managing the volatility of markets, competition among global enterprises and the increasing complexity of products, manufacturing systems and management strategies are discussed. Industry challenges and future directions for research and development needed to help both practitioners and academicians are presented.

The CIRP Encyclopedia covers the state-of-art of advanced technologies, methods and models for production, production engineering and logistics. While the technological and operational aspects are in the focus, economical aspects are addressed too. The entries for a wide variety of terms were reviewed by the CIRP-Community, representing the highest standards in research. Thus, the content is not only evaluated internationally on a high scientific level but also reflects very recent developments.

This book develops innovative techniques from operational research and management science for the design and implementation of a reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS), and subsequently analyzes and assesses their performance. A reconfigurable manufacturing system (RMS) is a paradigm that can address many of the challenges posed by the modern market. Accordingly, substantial research is now being conducted on RMS, focusing on various levels of decision-making (strategic, tactical and operational). However, as a relatively new research area, there are still only very few books and articles available on reconfigurable manufacturing system design and management. In addition to filling that gap, this book provides a forum for investigating, exchanging ideas on, and disseminating the latest advances in the broad area of RMS applications in today’s industry. Gathering contributions by experts from academia, industry and policy-making, it represents an essential contribution to the existing literature on manufacturing and logistics in general and industry 4.0 in particular.