Factory utilisation is key to economic competitiveness. Traditional fixed production layouts cannot easily scale dynamically to mitigate demand or product variation. Although a flexible factory can help with this, additional challenges emerge when trying to optimise for assembly zone areas, production assets, and time. Quantifying the tradeoffs inherent in build philosophy and choice of process technology is also a significant challenge to modern industry. 

  

We have identified, developed, and demonstrated a methodology to optimise the facility utilisation and layout for a given product family, based on expected demand curves, and taking into account predicted learning curves and failure rates. Non-recurring infrastructure costs and recurring costs, in terms of energy consumption and people time, can be estimated. Applying this technology should enable businesses to select the correct production process and system for a given product, and more easily identify required change triggers during production. This in turn leads to higher utilisation and efficiencies, increasing the cost-effectiveness of the programme.