Impact of Product Life Cycle on Manufacturing Systems Reconfiguration.

Abstract: The dynamics of product life cycle for a family of products presents a complex manufacturing scenario. As the demand pattern is ever changing, the manufacturing system also has to be reconfigured in order to align its production capability with demand. This paper addresses the complex relationship between the product life cycle for a family of products and the manufacturing systems performance optimization via reconfiguration. The optimization strategy consists of three main steps: simulation of the original configuration, optimisation of the reconfigured system and finally product portfolio optimisation. Full discussions on results are given in terms of system sensitivity and optimization efficiency and the deployment of reconfiguration. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]