Extending Value in Legacy Production Systems: Insights from the Liquid Food Processing

Shifts in needs coupled with dynamic markets and technological evolution, requires that products and production infrastructures be capable providing extended value for stakeholders throughout the comprehensive systems life cycle. Product change not only reflects shifts in externalities but also on the legacy manufacturing system that produce it. In such situations where product and production change occur it is critical to actively plan and integrate unique system characteristics that can leverage different change types. This requires consideration of not only the changes needed for the product, but also the relational changes of the manufacturing infrastructure. This research provides a basis to support extended value delivery for legacy systems through a conceptual framework based on literature and a use case that evaluates the types and intensity of specific change states according to existing product and production system specifications. The findings from the food processing industry case suggest that knowledge, enabled via smart collaborative networks, and change histories can be effectively used to increase and extend the value of both products and production systems when subject to dynamic changes.