Managing variations in products, processes and manufacturing systems

Manufacturers seek customers’ satisfaction by increasing products variety and customization while striving for agility and productivity. Large variations in products scope and production scale are evident. A hierarchy of parts/products variants is introduced to illustrate the propagation of variations. A unified approach that links products design to manufacturing processes, through variation-oriented data structures and planning methodologies, and capitalizes on commonalities, is presented. The use of variation assessment metrics is demonstrated. Methods for manufacturing systems design for variation are discussed. Lot-size capping is introduced to manage variations in batch sizes and product mix. A gearbox case study is used for illustration.