TY - THES

T1 - Development of a Process for Scenario-based Identification of Flexibility Gaps - Empirical Evaluation for Manufacturing Flexibility to Compensate Volatile Demand

AU - Fronthaler, Andre

N1 - embargoed until null

PY - 2014

Y1 - 2014

N2 - The strategic importance of flexibility increased significantly over the last decades which can particularly be explained by the influences of volatility, technological changes, globalization, high product and variant variety and other influencing factors that make the future more dynamic and less predictable. To compensate with the volatility in demand and to sustain companies’ success, the development of flexibility competence is essential, which enables companies to adjust resources to their needs and to be prepared for critical events. The theoretical part of this thesis describes the principles of flexibility management including the development and importance of flexibility, disambiguation of flexibility definitions and basic information for flexibility analyses. In addition, three methodological concepts for flexibility analyses and the main characteristics for managing manufacturing flexibility are specified, which were used for the development of the new process to identify flexibility gaps. The practical part contains the development and implementation of a process to identify flexibility gaps based on scenarios, which was elaborated in cooperation with HOERBIGER Kompressortechnik Holding GmbH. The approach is described by providing information about the five main process steps including the definition of scenarios, the calculation of flexibility requirements, the evaluation of flexibility potential, the identification of flexibility gaps and the identification and implementation of flexibility countermeasures to close the flexibility gaps. The results of the thesis provide information about the scope of the realized flexibility analysis at HOERBIGER Kompressortechnik Holding GmbH as well as the compilation of a catalogue of countermeasures, which can be used to fill the flexibility gaps. In addition, based on the results of the flexibility analysis, a process for capacity adjustment was developed, which supports the decision makers with the main objective to reduce the required time for adjustments and to define indicators when flexibility actions have to be activated.

AB - The strategic importance of flexibility increased significantly over the last decades which can particularly be explained by the influences of volatility, technological changes, globalization, high product and variant variety and other influencing factors that make the future more dynamic and less predictable. To compensate with the volatility in demand and to sustain companies’ success, the development of flexibility competence is essential, which enables companies to adjust resources to their needs and to be prepared for critical events. The theoretical part of this thesis describes the principles of flexibility management including the development and importance of flexibility, disambiguation of flexibility definitions and basic information for flexibility analyses. In addition, three methodological concepts for flexibility analyses and the main characteristics for managing manufacturing flexibility are specified, which were used for the development of the new process to identify flexibility gaps. The practical part contains the development and implementation of a process to identify flexibility gaps based on scenarios, which was elaborated in cooperation with HOERBIGER Kompressortechnik Holding GmbH. The approach is described by providing information about the five main process steps including the definition of scenarios, the calculation of flexibility requirements, the evaluation of flexibility potential, the identification of flexibility gaps and the identification and implementation of flexibility countermeasures to close the flexibility gaps. The results of the thesis provide information about the scope of the realized flexibility analysis at HOERBIGER Kompressortechnik Holding GmbH as well as the compilation of a catalogue of countermeasures, which can be used to fill the flexibility gaps. In addition, based on the results of the flexibility analysis, a process for capacity adjustment was developed, which supports the decision makers with the main objective to reduce the required time for adjustments and to define indicators when flexibility actions have to be activated.

KW - Volatilität

KW - Flexibilität

KW - Flexibilitätsmanagement

KW - Volatility

KW - Flexibility

KW - Flexibility Management

M3 - Master's Thesis

ER -