Convertibility Measures for Manufacturing Systems

With increased consumer demands for a wider variety of products In changeable, unpredicted quantities, manufacturing system responsiveness has become increasingly Important for Industry competitiveness. Manufacturers need systems that can be rapidly adjusted with regard to both functionality and throughput capacity over the lifetime of the system. Convertibility is defined as the capability of a system to adjust production functionality, or change from one product to another. End-users of manufacturing systems are struggling with the Issue of how to measure and quantify convertibility. Metrics for convertibility are proposed in this paper so that different manufacturing systems can be compared with respect to this area of performance. These metrics are based on assessments of the configuration itself, and the system components such as machines and material handling devices. Metrics for quantifying convertibility are useful for comparing system configurations during the early phases of design, with out requiring detailed product or process plan Information.