Hybrid Organisation Structure: A Holistic and Adaptable Approach for Hybrid, Flow-Oriented Assembly Organisation

Featured Application: The hybrid, flow-oriented assembly organisation supports the stakeholders in combining the high productivity of previous assembly systems based on the flow principle with the high functional flexibility of assembly systems based on the job shop principle. A data-based approach is presented that can individually dimension the areas with different organisational principles. Furthermore, the influence of the control variables is examined in a partial factorial simulation study to derive insights for practical industrial application. This paper summarises the research findings of the HyFlowJobShop research project. The aim of the research project is to combine the organisation structure of the flow principle with the principle of job shop production since traditional organisation structures alone can no longer meet the increased demands for a growing number of variants and shorter amortisation periods for production systems due to shorter product life cycles. The combination of the job shop and flow principle to form hybrid organisation structures is intended to offer producing companies an opportunity to position themselves in the conflict between the required flexibility and the achievement of production logistics targets as well as the resulting costs. To quantify the advantages of hybrid organisation structures, various system configurations are examined as part of a simulation study to identify interdependencies and influencing factors.