Results of workpackage 5 – Production Planning

The basis for a well-functioning mass production facility is accurate production planning, which must allow manufactures, customers and suppliers to plan and to predict all the factors involved – from production facilities to product costs or information exchange. Existing methodologies and tools originally used in the macro world do not yield satisfactory results when transferred to the world of micro production because the same logic cannot be applied.
This work package therefore focuses on developing a new set of methodologies which will provide the basis for innovative micro production planning.
The first step towards achieving this goal was an analysis of the employed micro production chains and the associated product features. The costs for different varieties of micro optics production processes have been analyzed and the results of this analysis were generalized and abstracted in order to establish a cost estimation tool. This tool is being used to reduce the production costs for example products like an automotive rear view camera lens.
The project´s more technology-driven partners helped to collate insights into the design of micro products, which are currently being aggregated into a design guide. Finally, all the information related to technology and production planning will be put into a knowledge database for use by project partners. Externally, results are disseminated via publications and contributions to different online-journals and webpages.

 

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