Complexity cube for the characterization of complex production systems

Abstract

Owing to the increasing complexity of today's logistic systems, new planning and control methods are necessary. Autonomously controlled processes are a possible solution to cope with these new requirements. In order to verify this thesis, the development of an evaluation system is necessary which measures the logistic objective achievement, the level of autonomous control and the level of complexity. The current paper presents adequate operationalization of the complexity in production systems. For this purpose a complexity cube is derived in order to characterize production systems regarding their level of complexity. The different types of complexity in this cube are represented by vectors which allow measurement and comparison of different types of complexity for different production systems. The application of the complexity cube is illustrated using an exemplary job shop manufacturing scenario.

Keywords:

• Autonomous control
• Complexity
• Production logistics

Acknowledgements

This research is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Collaborative Research Centre 637 ‘Autonomous Cooperating Logistic Processes: A Paradigm Shift and its Limitations’ (SFB 637) at the university of Bremen.