The impact of autonomy on lean manufacturing systems

Abstract

An increasing number of companies implement lean principles into their production processes due to changing market conditions, a higher market competition, and the high success of the Toyota Production System in the 1970s. Since lean manufacturing focus primarily on changes in the process organization, most of these changes do not require complex technologies. Additionally, many companies establish IT systems, e.g., a Manufacturing Execution System (MES) or an Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP), as well as RFID and sensor technologies, for the improvement, and monitoring of their processes. They may enable autonomous production that shifts the decision making from central to decentral.The question is how human factors, IT systems, and smart communication technologies can support the objectives of lean manufacturing. This paper provides an approach for the analysis of the correlation of lean manufacturing and decentrally controlled production by modern technologies, modern software systems as well as human, and organizational factors. Thus, the effects of the usage of autonomy for a decentralized production control and benefits for various objectives can be classified. Therefore, the paper introduces a three-layer cluster for the classification of the level of autonomy.