Hybrid Production Systems

While virtual product development allows great freedom in terms of design, actual development processes are rather restricted. Those boundary conditions are at best hardly possible to exert influence on. Therefore, future research has to focus both on the realisation of the concept of one-piece-flow while simultaneously increasing flexibility and productivity and on the technological advancement. Hence, hybridisation of manufacturing processes is a promising approach, which often allows tapping potentials in all the aforementioned dimensions.