Brownfield Development of Platforms for Changeable Manufacturing

Typically, development of changeability and reconfigurability in manufacturing are greenfield approaches. New platforms, products and manufacturing systems are developed with new features, capability or technology. While companies can achieve the desired level and type of changeability with greenfield approaches, development of new platforms and systems is a costly affair if existing systems and platforms in the company is not considered. This study outlines an approach for systematic brownfield platform development. Seven stages are listed, describing how candidates for inclusion in a platform are identified and subsequently developed based on existing manufacturing systems and production landscape. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.