Roadmapping Towards Mature Collaborative Reconfigurable Manufacturing System

Abstract

Reconfigurable Manufacturing System (RMS) has received a great deal of attention among researchers and industrial activists after being promoted by new manufacturing paradigms like Industry 4.0. Consequently, researchers are working on introducing a comprehensive, mature and collaborative framework of RMS. Still, there are several practical obstacles in the way of introducing collaborative RMS into corporates. Among these obstacles is a lack of knowledge about the status quo and strategic guides to realize new frameworks, especially when it is considering strategic decisions in a collaborative decision making (CDM) system. Thus, the main novelty of the present study is to gather and introduce 194 key performance indicators (KPIs) to give a general picture of the way of implementing newly developed collaborative RMSs. This framework covers four key axes in the RMS framework at the same time, including Servitization, Sustainability, Uncertainty, and Digitalization. Each axis is featured with several dimensions and for each dimension there are from two to 19 KPIs to monitor the implementation level. The KPIs have their own description and example of the formula. In addition, based on the PCDA cycle, the relationships between strategic objectives, KPIs, targets, and initiatives are given to connect the various parts of changing strategy.