Considering Sustainability in Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems Research – A Literature Review

Reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS) have since the introduction almost two decades ago been recognized as the future of manufacturing. In line with a rapidly increasing customer demand for mass customization, RMS have been found to be a solution for managing frequent product introductions whilst keeping a high production efficiency. However, in recent years the focus has partly shifted from producing solely from an economic standpoint towards establishing a triple bottom line of sustainability, i.e., taking economic, social and environmental perspectives into consideration. Some authors have found RMS as an enabler for sustainable manufacturing, however, this needs further investigation. This paper aims through a literature review at describing and summarizing the hitherto conducted research on RMS and sustainability. A literature review in the database Scopus was carried out and a total of 265 papers were initially reviewed. Two categorizations of prominent papers were carried out: an initial categorization and a categorization according to the triple bottom line of sustainability. Based on these categorizations, the hitherto conducted research on RMS and sustainability was described. Several frequently discussed sustainability factors were identified, as well as suggestions of future research.