Supporting pre-development of new manufacturing technologies

Abstract: In today’s tough industrial environment, efficient development of new products and new manufacturing solutions is necessary to stay competitive on a global market. Manufacturing companies use substantial money and development resources to develop new products. However, the resources spent on finding and implementing emerging manufacturing technologies are much more limited. This is often the case even though it is well known that a way of competing on a global market is through the introduction of new manufacturing technologies that can improve product quality as well as contribute to reducing manufacturing time, resulting in reduced product price and in the end increased profit.When introducing new manufacturing technologies, different challenges arise such as lack of knowledge, involvement of an external equipment supplier, etc. In addition, time-to-volume is critical when introducing new manufacturing technologies in a manufacturing context. To be able to have a fast ramp-up, manufacturing technology needs to be mature enough and at the same time meet all requirements. Efficient introduction of new manufacturing technologies requires that pre-development activities have been performed in advance.Previous research in this area highlights a lack of knowledge and solutions regarding pre-development of new manufacturing technologies. Such pre-development is important in order to have a successful introduction, fast time-to-volume and production system development. Based on these challenges, the objective of the research presented in this thesis is to develop support for pre-development of new manufacturing technologies.The research is based on literature reviews and three empirical case studies, carried out over a two-year period of time. The first empirical case study was an exploratory case study in the manufacturing industry. The purpose of that research study was to identify critical factors forcing manufacturing companies to improve the development of manufacturing technologies.The second study was a longitudinal embedded case study in the manufacturing industry with the purpose of identifying factors that affect evaluation of new manufacturing technologies during new product development. Particular attention was given to the product development process and how it has affected the evaluation of new manufacturing technologies.Finally, the third study was a single case study in the manufacturing industry with the purpose of analysing and discussing the assessment of the maturity level of a manufacturing technology.