Managing misalignments in complex production flows : A way to integrate shared interfaces by adjusting infrastructural decision areas

Sammanfattning: Acceleration of technological development has resulted in increased customer requirements. Momentarily customer demand fluctuates that creates uncertainties, which puts pressure on manufacturing companies to respond and incorporate this into the manufacturing strategy to stay competitive. Additionally, manufacturing companies experience complexities with non-linear production flows that share interfaces. Research in manufacturing strategy is more focused on traditional linear production structures and flows. Thus, the objective of this thesis to analyze integration of shared interfaces between non-linear production flows. Empirical research was conducted in form of a single case study at a production facility of a manufacturing company, to fulfill the thesis objective. The ambition of the case company is to improve the handling of semi-finished products to achieve an increased efficiency. Interviews, observations, analysis in product profiling by Hill et al. (1998) have resulted in that infrastructural misalignments are considered as major aspects affecting integration of shared interfaces. Further, issues regarding the management of infrastructural aspects are found through in-depth interviews, workshop and analysis. Adjustments to these issues have to be considered to achieve an efficient integration of shared interfaces between production flows. This thesis contributes within the area of manufacturing strategy and infrastructural decision areas. A contribution within this area is the extension of the product profiling framework usage with a comparative analysis of production flows with the considered dimension of shared interfaces. The comparative analysis showed that there were misalignments between aspects that were shared interfaces in the complex production flows. Furthermore, integration of shared interfaces is seen as a way for manufacturing companies to decrease production complexity and increase responsiveness to respond to market requirements.