A systematic approach towards mastering complexity through hybrid assembly planning

In the face of increasingly agile product development, new challenges arise for assembly planning due to growing complexity. Within this paper, we show that the complexity-dependent combination of agile methods and traditionally plan-driven assembly planning procedures holds great potential for mastering planning complexity. Thus, a methodology towards hybrid assembly planning is elucidated with a focus on selecting dominant planning methods for specific planning scopes within this paper. Based on a detailed model of assembly planning as a system, the complexity requirements of different planning modules are determined. Therefore, an integrative complexity measure is developed to quantitatively operationalise complexity in a quasistatic-structural and a dynamic-functional complexity dimension. In order to identify dominant planning methods, the complexity potentials of agile and plan-driven methods are examined in an Analytic Hierarchy Process expert study with 22 participants. Within a decision model, dominant planning methods are selected for specific planning modules by matching the quantified complexity requirements with the complexity potentials of agile and plan-driven methods. Based on the systematic method selection, dominant planning methods for specific planning scopes can be tailored into a project specific hybrid process framework. The approach to hybrid assembly planning enables optimised planning results through the improved mastery of complexity. (c) 2022 CIRP.