Enabling Circular and Reconfigurable Machining System Within the Automotive Industry: A Multiple Case Study

To shift the focus from a reactive development approach to a purely proactive approach is a comprehensive and decisive challenge. Reconfigurable manufacturing principles offer a new perspective that emphasizes adaptability over obsolescence. This paper aims to explore how automotive industries include reconfigurability and circularity in production system design to prolong the production system lifetime. In a multiple case study within automotive industry the long-term view in machining system development has been investigated. The results show that the companies try to leave the linear approach behind to look beyond the specific project boundaries and enable a system to be reused over time. There is an awareness of the importance to adopt long-term approaches to achieve a circular mindset and the study reveals that machining systems are characterized by a higher flexibility and higher degree of standardization to enable turbulence in requirements. Still, there are methods required to consider future needs, strategies, and technologies to enable reconfigurable and circular systems.