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Original scientific paper

Assuring the Competitiveness of European Manufacturer through Changeability in Manufacturing

Thorsten Blecker ; Hamburg University of Technology, Germany
Gunter Graf ; University of Klagenfurt, Austria


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page 109-126

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Abstract

Changeability has become a buzzword for operations management, especially in German literature. Therefore, we analyse this concept in comparison with existing concepts ror yariability, such as flexibility and agility, Agility is an enterprise-wide concept incorporating product design as well as manufacturing systems design and aiming at lean and often dislocated manufacturing processes. Flexibility means that an operation system is variably within a specific combination of in-, out and throughput. Changeability, in contrast, means the ability ofan operation system to autonomously alter the configuration to meet new, prior unknown demands e. g. from the market. Changeability is then the ability to realise new states of the in-, out-and throughput. Additionally, the reconfiguration of the system has to be realised as quickly as the environmental changes. Therefore, to be changeable, the speed of adaptation is important.

Keywords

changeability; operations system; competitive advantage; strategic resource

Hrčak ID:

101276

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/101276

Publication date:

1.12.2004.

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