Enabling manufacturing flexibility issue resolution in advanced vehicle development
Name
272404435-MIT.pdf
Description
Full printable version
Size
9.7 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
b2f1a1bee736204c2a6d76f6845feb1f
Author(s)
Tomlin, Grace C. (Grace Catherine)
Advisor(s)
Warren Seering and Eric Rebentisch.
Date Issued
2008
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Manufacturing Flexibility is a broad term used to describe a metric that can be measured in many different ways. Current industry experts agree that Flexibility is one of the key measures that will help the automotive industry reduce current overcapacity and remain competitive. In addition to flexibility, General Motors is also focusing on fewer, interbuildable product architectures.To maintain and implement flexible manufacturing systems, General Motors has developed a list of Flexibility Enablers. These enablers identify critical product characteristics which affect the interbuildability of the product and the flexibility and of the subsequent manufacturing process.Market forces drive product requirements, and lead to designs that potentially violate the Flexibility Enablers. This thesis will look at GM's internal structure and how it has developed to support design decisions and issue resolution. It will then study cases in which the design requirements led to design, manufacturing and cost tradeoffs in an attempt to understand and document the different unwritten resolution processes in disparate groups.Keywords: Manufacturing Flexibility, Product Development, Flexibility Enabler, Interbuildability.
Description
Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2008.
Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-74).
Subjects
Sloan School of Management.
Mechanical Engineering.
Leaders for Manufacturing Program.
MIT Department
Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Sloan School of Management
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