Challenges in Flexible Manufacturing Technologies for the Final Assembly in the Commercial Vehicle Industry

Increasing customer demands and product diversity as well as emerging technologies and market trends, such as the establishment of new driveline technologies, like e-mobility or hydrogen, present challenges for manufacturing companies in the commercial vehicle industry. Consequently, companies must strengthen their focus to the aspect of flexibility within their manufacturing processes. This paper contributes to the state of the art in flexible manufacturing technologies research, which enables manufacturing companies to deal with these increasing flexibility requirements. Focussing on the area of final assembly the paper takes a holistic perspective and characterizes the readiness of automotive companies to be able to implement flexible manufacturing technologies. The system ecosystem and the process organization of automotive companies are examined with respect to the requirements of flexible manufacturing. Finally, gaps that hinder the implementation of flexible manufacturing technologies are identified and described, and possible solution concepts for the identified gaps are proposed.