Evaluating the Innovation Ability of Manufacturing Resources

Due to today’s turbulent environment, manufacturing resources, particularly in assembly, must be reconfigured frequently. These reconfigurations are caused by various, partly cyclic, influencing factors. Hence, it is important to evaluate the innovation ability the capability of resources to implement innovations quickly and efficiently without large expense of manufacturing resources. For this purpose, a new methodology is presented in this article. Within the methodology, design structure matrices and graph theory are used. The results of the methodology include different indices to evaluate the innovation ability of the manufacturing resources. Due to the cyclicity of the influencing factors, the methodology can be used to synchronize the realization of adaptations. Keywords—Changeability, Cycle Management, Design Structure Matrices, Graph Theory, Manufacturing Resource Planning, Production Management