Life cycle oriented evaluation of flexibility in investment decisions for automated assembly systems

Due to fast changing market requirements and short product life cycles, flexibility is one of the crucial characteristics of automated and partly automated assembly systems besides purchasing and operation costs. Since the life cycle of an assembly system is longer than the one of the assembled products, flexibility enables an assembly system to adapt to future product requirements as well as production scenarios. The approach proposed in this paper strives for a systematic and economic measurement of flexibility in investment decisions. It offers methods and key-figures supporting the investment decisions for automated assembly systems. The right levels of flexibility and automation of an assembly system are evaluated by using a set of potential future scenarios of the system's life cycle. Based on two new key-figures called Return on Automation and Return on Flexibility, the approach allows comparing different configurations of an assembly system and therefore supports well-informed investment decisions. (C) 2013 CIRP.