Production development : design and operation of production systems

The need for developing the area of industrial production is greater than ever, both for individual manufacturing companies and for national industries as a whole in the fight to maintain competitiveness in a global market. Outsourcing is not the only answer to the question of how to reduce product cost; on the contrary, continuously developing production is a way of both controlling costs and of utilizing production as a competitive means in the business strategy. Production development is about improving existing production systems and developing new ones. The production system should be developed in integration with the product, as a part of the overall product realization process, and not in sequence after the product has already been designed. Production Development: Design and Operation of Production Systems takes a holistic viewpoint on the production system and its design process during the whole system life cycle. A working procedure demonstrating how to design and realize the production system is presented, together with a number of related production development aspects. Production Development: Design and Operation of Production Systems is illustrated with a large number of figures and industrial examples. The book can be used as a reference for teachers and students, or as a manual for professionals within the field of production.