Reconfigurable Agile Manufacturing Systems in the Medical Devices Industry

Zhuang Meizhi

Abstract

In the medical devices industry, it is necessary for the manufacturing system to provide fast cost-effective responses to unpredictable and ever-changing product demand, and support rapid product launches including unplanned ones that are tailored to meet changing customer desires. Reconfigurable agile manufacturing has become a topic of great interest over the past several years. The objective of this project is to study how manufacturing systems should be designed and reconfigured over time in order to cope with different agile manufacturing environments. Various approaches will be studied and specific models developed. The models will be tested based on an existing manufacturing system in the medical device industry to test their effectiveness.