Development of holistic manufacturing concepts

As a part of an industrial enterprise's Manufacturing Strategy the development of one or more manufacturing concepts can be an important factor in the link between the enterprise's Strategy Planning and the concrete design of the production system. This allows for employee participation in the concept development phases, which is seen as an important element in gaining integration over time and of aspects in order to create a more coherent concept and Manufacturing strategy. Manufacturing's task of daily having to deliver products and being focused on the operational task leaves in the traditional sense little time to focus on the development of the strategy of the function. Nevertheless an event during time creates possibility for focusing on the development of the manufacturing strategy. This can be seen in the notion of Time Out, where there is a chance to review daily operations. This approach to the development of manufacturing strategy further emphasizes the focus on participation in the strategy development process. The project aims at developing new means for the organizational development process surrounding the Manufacturing Strategy concept development process. In this is included the aim to make the Manufacturing function a more proactive part of the development of the enterprise's business policy. The development process and the testing of the concepts will be in close cooperation with industry. Participating as a partner company in an Action Research mode is Grundfos Electronics, focusing on the development of concepts and manufacturing strategies in new product introductions. The engagement further aims against the establishment of a workbook for the support of the concept development phase of Manufacturing of a NPI project. Project duration: Fall 1999-Fall 2002. (Henrik Jørgensen, Jens O. Riis, John Johansen, Anders Drejer)