Determination and Prioritization of Flexibility Types in the Context of Industry 4.0: A Use Case in Automotive Industry

In the actual worldwide context of manufacturing, the capacity to introduce, adapt and produce a new product quickly represents an important strategic objective. This is also a remarkable challenge for the managers, specifically due to the instability in demand and supply. COVID -19 and Russia-Ukraine war have amplified this instability. The flexibility in several parts of a manufacturing system is one of the main pillars of industry 4.0 and could be a great initiative to be investigated. However, there are several types of flexibility, and prioritizing them remains a difficult decision. The definition of several types of flexibility, the opportunity offered by each one, the complexity to implement them, and the way to evaluate their levels are not well developed in the literature. This paper proposes several types of flexibility, the challenges, and some key indicators to measure them. Then a model to identify the appropriate flexibility is proposed. To illustrate the complexity of the problem, a use case of launching a new product in the automotive industry is presented and the necessity to identify the appropriate flexibilities is discussed.