Optimal Reconfiguration Policy to React to Product Changes

The increasing frequency of product and process modifications may significantly undermine the profitability of those production systems that are designed only on the basis of the current product requirements and eventually on the expectations of future variations of the market volumes. Indeed, the product typically evolves during its life cycle, by changing its technological characteristics and therefore its requirements on the production system. As a consequence, the production system may be forced to run in an inefficient and costly manner because it is no longer consistent with the modified product. This paper describes the reconfiguration problem of production systems and proposes the optimal reconfiguration policy to react to product changes, on uniformly distributed market demand and uniformly distributed technological requirements. A numerical case based on a real problem supports the applicability of the proposed reconfiguration policy.