ICT solutions for flexible manufacturing during product introduction

In a manufacturing perspective, a successful product introduction requires attention for the product quality, the introduction process, manufacturing scale and ICT support for manufacturing processes. The patterns that have been found in the product lifecycle provide information on what product introduction scenarios need to be supported. If these scenarios are considered upfront, they can aid in setting up the right manufacturing processes at the right scale. The low demand at the introduction stage allows for a launch strategy where the introduction stage is used for optimizing the manufacturing processes before starting full-production. By extending current Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRPII) with a combination of historic data of product introductions and a fuzzy logic system, a firm can make credible forecasts of volume demand.