Highly flexible self-reconfigurable systems for rapid layout formation to offer manufacturing services

Due to the changing trend in manufacturing field from mass production to mass customization it is important to offer new products at low cost and fast time to market to keep competitive. This paper addresses the problem of manufacturing services with fast production time, for multiple products and capacity for low and high production volumes. To provide these services, a novel framework, INTREPID, is proposed based on the idea of Self-Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems (S-RMS). A factory that facilitates manufacturing layout reconfiguration and mobile production resources that can self-reconfigure depending on the product is proposed. The full scope of this framework is to provide global services through the cloud and a public manufacturing network. This will allow production in any country without huge investment for entities like SMEs, startups and even entrepreneurships.