Adaptation of production strategies during factory expansion

Factory expansions in response to volume growth and product diversification are booming in the current economic climate. The fundamental aim is to quickly create additional machine and production capacity and the associated logistics. At the same time, such an expansion offers the ideal opportunity to fundamentally review, update and optimise existing production strategies and manufacturing control principles. Potential often remains untapped because the focus is too much on physical capacity expansion and strategic improvements in production logistics are neglected. In the long term, this leads to suboptimal throughput times, higher inventories and reduced flexibility.

A key starting point is material flow-oriented machine segmentation. By clearly assigning machine areas to specific material flows, internal transport can be minimised and handling simplified. This segmentation supports more targeted capacity planning, optimised set-up times and better machine utilisation. In practice, this means that similar manufacturing processes and similar product families are grouped more closely together in order to reduce travel times, reduce waiting times and identify bottlenecks at an early stage. In addition, segmentation enables better standardisation of plant concepts, which in turn facilitates maintenance and increases availability.

The introduction of pull control systems, often based on Kanban or just-in-time logistics, is another guiding principle of successful factory expansions. Pull principles reduce inventories, increase the visibility of supply chain problems and improve responsiveness to changes in demand. In the context of a factory expansion, this means that material and information flows are designed in such a way that production only starts when there is a clear need and approved channels are available for this purpose. Important building blocks here are the standardisation of component groups, clear scheduling rules, transparent batch sizes and close integration between production, logistics and purchasing.

The adaptation of master data and scheduling principles plays a crucial role in the context of a factory expansion. Master data provides the basis for stable planning and control, including material key figures, parts lists, work plans, capacity data and manufacturing rules. A consistent and granular master data base enables production logistics models to be accurately mapped, simulations to be carried out realistically and optimisation potential to be reliably quantified. At the same time, scheduling principles – such as push, pull or hybrid approaches – should be adapted to the new production reality. It makes sense to remain flexible and define differentiated sets of rules depending on product complexity, batch size and supplier structure. The goal is robust, fault-tolerant scheduling that continues to operate stably even in the event of disruptions.

In addition, companies benefit from digital transformation as a supporting backbone of their production strategy. The use of real-time data, Industry 4.0 concepts, networked machines and advanced analytics tools enables data-driven production control.