Abstract Today production systems, plants and supply chains are optimized for a one-site (one implantation) configuration and for mass production. For some products, the shipping costs from the manufacturing site… Click to show full abstract
Abstract Today production systems, plants and supply chains are optimized for a one-site (one implantation) configuration and for mass production. For some products, the shipping costs from the manufacturing site to the end user site can have a significant impact on the total cost of the product. In such a case, the ability to manufacture close to the end user is a valuable alternative. The framework we propose was tested on a real industrial case in the solar energy field. The company producing the solar fields wanted to face the twofold objectives of a reconfigurable manufacturing system able to handle a huge variety of changes: that different geographical sites, a high variability in demand, etc. and a robust mobile system that can move from one manufacturing location to another one without performance loss.
               
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