APACHE

In the context of the project, an adaptive decision support system has been developed that helps the manufacturing controller of the future to react to deviations in manufacturing. In a first step, deviations were systematically described and categorized.

This serves to efficiently analyze the causes of similar deviations in the review and analysis of causes. In a second step, the identified deviations were assessed and prioritized with regard to their impact on value added as well as on time criticality.

At this point, it was possible to take into account, for example, that a deviation occurring at the beginning of the value creation process has a greater impact than a deviation towards the end. In a third step, a dominant reaction strategy (manual, partially automated, fully automated) was assigned to the deviations evaluated.

For example, when there is a lack of inventory, a reorder can be placed automatically. This responsibility should be taken away from the employee so that the time gained can be used to analyze the reasons why the inventory was depleted.

Finally, the differentiation logic for deviations was integrated into an adaptive model of the production control. This ensures that decisions taken are fed back and the manufacturing controller is increasingly relieved of having to address routine deviations (deviations for which defined alternatives for action exist), so that the latter can increasingly deal with the elimination of the causes of deviations.

When considering all deviations, a tolerance corridor had to be defined within which a deviation is acceptable. Otherwise the system would have resulted in counterproductive over-regulation.