Robustness of capacity driven design strategies

Concurrent engineering and design for manufacture and assembly have become dominant strategies for closing the gap between design and manufacture. However, the primary focus of these strategies is to design products that are easily built from a capability viewpoint. The technical literature has paid less attention to strategies that focus on the design of products that are suitable from a capacity viewpoint. Initial experimentation with capacity driven design concepts indicate that they can be very beneficial. However, no comprehensive study has been completed to indicate the efficacy of the strategies in general terms. In this paper, the authors examine and quantify the performance and robustness of capacity driven design strategies in a wide spectrum of alternative manufacturing scenarios. The results of simulation studies indicate that capacity driven design strategies can be effective in a wide array of manufacturing situations, and that future research in this area is warranted.