Innovative flexibility-oriented business models and system configuration approaches: An industrial application

In the current competitive scenario, industrial companies experience frequent unexpected changes in production demand. To cope with this, they often opt for investments in manufacturing technologies which embed extra-flexibility that is rarely utilized and, consequently, affects financial and operational performance. Innovative flexibility-oriented business models based on innovative service value propositions could increase manufacturers competitiveness in turbulent environment and could represent a competitive factor for systems suppliers. Their industrial implementation requires the optimization of manufacturing flexibility over the lifecycle of a system and the quantification of economic performance for customers and suppliers in order to mage risks and to shape sustainable contractual agreements. In this paper, stochastic configuration methods to design focused-flexibility production systems are presented as a promising methodological enabler of new flexibility-oriented business models. An industrial case demonstrating the potential value of these methods is discussed. Future research developments are finally outlined.