ELEMENTS OF MANUFACTURING SYSTEM

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 Method and implementation

This chapter presents the research method describing the research approach along with the literature review and case study. The different data collection techniques used in the research is also discussed along with the data analysis and ends with a discussion on the validity and reliability of the research.

Research approach

The tradition of research followed was a mixture of interpretevist and positivist type (Williamson, 2002). As the research was linked to the manufacturing system, it was important to study its elements and different types to have a deeper understanding of the system and the commonalities and differences between the types of manufacturing system (Karlsson, 2009). Reconfigurable manufacturing system is one of the types of manufacturing system which is studied in detail to answer all the research questions.
Three research questions were framed and answered to achieve the aim of the research. The first research question “What are the current approaches for assessment of reconfigurability?” demanded a literature study of existing assessment models hence a qualitative literature search on reconfigurable assessment model was commenced. The prevailed literature assisted to answer this research question. A quantitative literature study was the other option to answer this research question.
The second research question “What are the assessment criteria for reconfigurability in a manufacturing system? ”was approached initially with deductive reasoning where literature was explored in a qualitative manner on RMS which ended in finding the characteristics of RMS. The assessment of the characteristics was one of the ways to assess the reconfigurability of manufacturing system. To assess the characteristics of RMS it was necessary to identify the criteria which affected those characteristics. The assessment method was developed by considering all the characteristics. This approach supported to answer the research question on the basis of literature review.
The third research question “How are the identified criteria utilized to assess the level of reconfigurability in a manufacturing system?” is related to the second research question on the lines of how the identified assessment criteria can be used to assess a manufacturing system. It demanded a case study, survey or experiment method to test and validate the assessment criteria developed from the second research question. The case study method was chosen as a research method to answer this research question. The research was approached in an inductive style where assessment criteria and assessment model developed during literature review were examined in the case company by the qualitative method to assess their reconfigurability level. An assess-ment method was developed at the end of research to indicate the level of reconfigura-bility in the case company.

Literature Review

A literature review builds a logical framework for the research through a thoughtful and insightful discussion (Williamson, 2002). A literature review influenced the selec-tion of different research methods for answering the research questions. The qualitative search was done during literature review to get the deep insight knowledge of RMS. Qualitative search is the exploration of the relevant information from the ex-isting literature (Williamson, 2002). Snowballing technique assisted to find most rele-vant literature from the year 1997 – 2018. The databases used for the literature search were primo, science direct, google search and Emerald Insight. The literature review was conducted in two parts, i.e.,
Existing assessment models for RMS (RQ1).
Characteristics of RMS (RQ2).
The first part of the literature review was conducted to identify the existing assess-ment models for RMS, i.e., RQ1. The study formed the groundwork for the research and helped to identify the research gap in assessment methodologies as the identified literature represented quantitative models. An effective review improves the knowledge and identifies the area which requires more research (Webster & Watson, 2002). It was identified that a research gap existed in qualitative assessment tech-niques; hence research was conducted to develop a qualitative method.
The second part of the literature review assisted to answer the second research ques-tion. The second research question was answered in three steps; the first step was to study RMS in detail. The second step was to study and understand the characteristics of RMS and third step was to identify the criteria for assessing those characteristics. All three steps required wider literature search and keywords used during the search were “RMS”, “RMS characteristics”, and “RMS criteria”.

Case study

Case study methodology is used when existing knowledge about the area of study is limited (Williamson, 2002). Based on the results obtained from the second research question, (i.e., “What are the assessment criteria for reconfigurability in a manufactur-ing system? ”) the type of case study and unit of analysis were selected. The research was designed with a single case study to test the assessment criteria and method. A specific module in the final assembly line and the end of line (EOL) test for the se-lected module was chosen as the unit of analysis in an automotive industry with large variations because there was an introduction of a new variant in that assembly line and the existing variant was also running in the same assembly line. The real-time sin-gle case study helped to gain deeper knowledge in the field of RMS and consumed more time to collect the required data (Voss, et al., 2002).
The third research question “How are the identified criteria utilised to assess the level of reconfigurability in a manufacturing system?” demanded case study, as it deals with real-life context. Adding a single case study enhanced the validity of the model and assessment criteria developed from the literature review. The literature study gave sufficient information regarding the available quantitative assessment models and their application but there was research gap in qualitative assessment criteria and model. The case study assisted to answer the third research question by collecting the qualitative data from the explanatory investigation to develop a qualitative method (Yin, 2009).

Data collection

A careful record was made during data collection such that none of the data is lost (Williamson, 2002). The data was collected in the case company from 12/3/2018 to 09/5/2018. The detailed information was collected to answer third research question and to assess the reconfigurability level in the case company. Relevant data was col-lected from the final assembly line of the case company using techniques such as semi-structured interviews, document studies, and observation.

Interviews

Interview technique was used to collect qualitative data and aims to understand the interviewee point of view. Exploratory interviews were conducted in early stages to get a system perspective. In a Semi-structured interview, the interviewer will be hav-ing the list of standard questions and the interviewer follow up on the leads provided by the respondent (Williamson, 2002). Each interview conducted consumed 45 minutes to 90 minutes. Before conducting the interviews, the questions were sent to the interviewee as mentioned in appendix 1 and there were follow up questions based on the answers from interviewees. Two interviewers conducted the interview with the interviewee/respondent as mentioned in Table 4. To ensure none of the information from the interview was lost, recording of the interview was done.Conducting semi-structured interviews with the selected team leaders of the assembly line, production engineer responsible for the project created an in-depth knowledge about different variants in the product family being assembled in the final assembly line of the system. A semi-structured interview is close to the in-depth interviewing technique. Conducting semi-structured interviews with industrial engineer responsible for the preparation, the industrial engineer responsible for realization provided infor-mation regarding the existing system and their perspective and it helped to develop the assessment method. The semi-structured interviews conducted with manufacturing engineer responsible for realization and implementation, manufacturing engineers re-sponsible for research and technology development, the team leader in final assembly line helped to collect the data of reconfigurability level from their departments perspective and it also helped to check the reliability of the data obtained. The retro-spective data were also collected along with real time data from the interview.

Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND
1.2 PROBLEM DESCRIPTION
1.3 PURPOSE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1.4 DELIMITATIONS
1.5 OUTLINE
2 Theoretical background
2.1 ELEMENTS OF MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
2.2 DEDICATED MANUFACTURING SYSTEM AND FLEXIBLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM.
2.3 RECONFIGURABLE MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
2.4 RECONFIGURABILITY ASSESSMENT MODEL
2.5 CHARACTERISTICS OF RMS
2.6 SUMMARY OF ASSESSMENT CRITERIA
3 Method and implementation
3.1 RESEARCH APPROACH
3.2 LITERATURE REVIEW
3.3 CASE STUDY
3.4 DATA COLLECTION
3.5 DATA ANALYSIS
3.6 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY
4 Findings and analysis 
4.1 ASSESSMENT METHOD
4.2 FINDINGS FROM THE CASE
4.3 ANALYSIS
5 Discussion and conclusions 
5.1 DISCUSSION OF METHOD
5.2 DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
5.3 CONCLUSIONS
6 References 
7 Appendices
GET THE COMPLETE PROJECT
DEVELOPMENT OF ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR RECONFIGURABILITY IN A MANUFACTURING SYSTEM