Investigating the Interaction aspect in the Mobile Manufacturing Concept

Paper in proceeding, 2007

The aim of the mobile manufacturing concept is to provide solutions for mobile and flexible manufacturing capacity on demand. The idea with the concept is that a mobile manufacturing unit (MMU) could sent to the place where it is needed, either within the company, to a local supplier, to a customer, or to a partner, in order to, for example, cover a temporary volume peak. Within the research project Factory-in-a-Box, five fully operative MMUs have been designed and realized in close contact with Swedish manufacturing industries. The main logistic focus within the research project has been put on optimizing the transport solutions, while the implications on the relations in the supply chain have still not been analyzed. It is however, important to clarify that the geographical and organizational distance between the stationary site and the site where the MMU temporarily is located, affects the complexity of the information and material flow. In order to secure MMU productivity, both information and material flow to and from the stationary factory, the stationary factory’s sub-suppliers, the local suppliers, and the customer, must be handled. In order to use the MMU’s resources efficiently, the level of interaction with all these actors has to be selected wisely. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the information flow and material flow in one of the demonstrators within the Factory-in-a-Box project, in order to highlight the importance of selecting appropriate level of interaction and how mobility affects the supply chain relations.