Production Technology Requirements with Respect to Agile Manufacturing - A survey on how the metal forming industry can adapt to volatile times

Agile manufacturing is a production concept that was originally developed at the Iaccoca Institute of Lehigh University (USA). The purpose was to develop a proposal on how the US could regain its supremacy in manufacturing. The objective of this thesis is to apply the agile manufacturing concept to the metal forming industry and to develop a recommendation of action how the press manufacturers can support their customers in dealing with volatile markets in an efficient way. For that reason production technology requirements are developed that should highlight characteristics of a production line that is essential to become “agile”. As a point of departure a literature research has been carried out to determine what has already been published about “agile” production requirements and how other industries deal with volatile markets. In a next step interviews with industry experts have been carried out to verify the findings of the literature review. The findings were documented in case studies which where the basis for the derivation of the production technology requirements that are relevant for the metal forming industry