The WGP (Wissenschaftliche Gesellschaft für Produktionstechnik) has published a position paper on resilience in production. It is freely available and shows practical approaches on how factories can become more resilient to crises. "Resilience in industry is already an issue in other areas. But as the WGP, we are now offering a scientifically sound approach for the first time to specifically increase the resilience of production systems," says WGP President Prof. Michael Zäh from the Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb) at the Technical University of Munich.
Global crises such as supply chain disruptions have clearly demonstrated that today's production systems are too susceptible to unexpected events. "The explosion in container prices during the pandemic was just one example of how economic conditions can jeopardize the profitability of production," emphasizes Robert Schmitt, lead author of the position paper and holder of the IQS Chair at the Machine Tool Laboratory (WZL) at RWTH Aachen University.
In their position paper, the authors build on existing production paradigms such as lean production and expand these to include elements that promote resilience. "The aim is a process model that allows dynamic adaptation to changing conditions and creates synergies with established approaches," says Schmitt.
INFO
WGP position paper on resilience in production systems
Resilience is defined as the ability of a production system to remain functional in the event of unexpected disruptions and to quickly return to economic efficiency. The paper is divided into several main areas:
- Definition and model of resilience in production systems: Resilience is positioned in distinction to flexibility and robustness as an independent concept that responds in particular to unpredictable and drastic disruptions.
- Procedure model for implementing resilience: A step-by-step model is presented, ranging from the identification of critical functions to the detection of vulnerabilities and the implementation of protective measures.
- Need for research and action: The paper identifies specific areas of research, such as the development of robust metrics and data models to measure resilience, the use of digital technologies such as Gaia-X to ensure end-to-end data flows and the strengthening of a culture of resilience in companies.
- Making corporate design more concrete: It emphasizes the need to develop resilience strategies in such a way that they can be implemented in practice and also include social and ecological aspects.
