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Virtual Reality (VR) within manufacturing industry has continued to be of large interest, especially when seeking to reduce time-to-market for development of new products. To reduce time-to-market (TTM), VR technology must be implemented and used in the development process in a way that enables increased performance. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify key decisions and implementation activities that impact VR adoption in NPD processes. This paper explores the VR adoption and usage to shed light on key decisions and implementation activities. A retrospective multiple case study has been conducted. One case has successfully implemented and used VR while two other cases have not. The results describe the decisions and implementation activities performed. Based on the results a framework for VR adoption is proposed. The framework identifies attributes which are key to VR adoption and describes them among three adoption stages.

Production planning is a critical function in manufacturing aiming at matching demand with capacity and available resources. It is a complex process spanning multiple levels from global volume planning to specific sites and production cells that has a direct impact on the operational efficiency of companies. Given its broad scope and diverse input, production planning is prone to external and internal disturbances calling for agile reactions from the side of planners who have the overall responsibility of creating, maintaining and overseeing the execution of planning activities. Traditional approaches to planning include heavy manual and semi-manual work with static and generic tools that lack agility and multi-level transparency of all necessary planning parameters. Concurrently, digital technologies and smart algorithms are emerging as tools to unlock value from existing process data. The above calls for a need to move towards data-driven production planning to support informed decision making. This paper aims to identify the prerequisites for data-driven production planning and areas of production planning that can benefit most out of a data-driven approach. A case study has been conducted with a manufacturer in the heavy-duty vehicle sector documenting observations and conducting interviews with planners and production leaders. The results shed light on the importance of consolidating foundational prerequisites before transitioning to a data-driven approach in production planning and highlight scenario planning across the planning hierarchy as a high-leverage area for a data-driven approach.

The ability to quickly design and deliver a product is especially important within Engineer-to-Order (ETO) industry, and a successful product delivery within ETO requires significant amount of data exchange and integration amongst systems and stakeholders of the order fulfilment process. This necessitates that the systems and digital infrastructure supporting this process have the required amount of interoperability to exchange and use data from each other. However, despite being of strategic importance, interoperability has received limited attention in ETO literature. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to analyse the current body of academic literature and explore how interoperability has been approached within low-volume ETO industry. A literature review of 41 articles was conducted to provide an overview of how interoperability has been approached in existing ETO research, what technologies are enabled by it, and the most prominent approaches of improving interoperability within ETO industry. The literature review indicated that five categories of advanced technologies within ETO industry are enabled by interoperability: cloud computing, digital twins, cyber physical systems, blockchain and large scale collaborative data ecosystems. Furthermore, the review identified six prominent approaches to increasing interoperability, including knowledge management frameworks, data standardization and variation management, enterprise and manufacturing platforms, middleware, asset administration shells and semantic decision support systems.

The purpose of this study is to examine the technical interoperability of a current product data infrastructure for an engineer-to-order (ETO) process and explore the implications of technical interoperability on design manufacturing integration in low-volume manufacturing companies.Design/methodology/approachThe results originate from a longitudinal case study of an ETO process within a large rolling stock manufacturing company.FindingsThe research identified theoretical and practical implications of low technical interoperability. The findings suggest that a lack of technical interoperability can negatively impact the efficiency of an ETO process. This lack of efficiency presents itself via an increase in manual administration and the risk of miscommunication, resulting in delayed lead times. This study also indicates that lacking technical interoperability can act as a barrier to innovation and the further implementation of advanced technologies.Research limitations/implicationsThis case study was limited to a single company, which in turn limits the generalizability of the findings. Future research should therefore focus on additional low-volume manufacturing companies.Originality/valueThe results from this study provide important insights for managing ETO processes within a low-volume manufacturing sector. The findings stress the importance of the technical interoperability of product data infrastructures for design manufacturing integration and, thus, the efficiency of ETO processes. Being aware of these implications can aid management in their decision-making process and support them in circumventing the negative effects of low technical interoperability.

Reducing lead times and quickly introducing new products to the market is becoming increasingly more important for low-volume manufacturing. This has led to management principles such as manufacturing and design integration to accelerate the time to market of new products, which puts immense pressure on the new product development (NPD) process. Since it is both time-intensive and a critical interface between manufacturing and design, requiring a significant amount of data to be transferred between these two functions and their systems. Successful integration between manufacturing and design requires a robust product data infrastructure, with high levels of technical interoperability to facilitate effective data flow between systems. However, research on the topic of technical interoperability and its impact on manufacturing and design integration within NPD processes is limited. A longitudinal case study was conducted at a low-volume development site, wherein an NPD process, and its product data infrastructure were analysed from a technical interoperability perspective. The purpose of this article is to explore the potential of technical interoperability within manufacturing and design integration, by identifying bottlenecks within a NPD process. The findings from this case study identified two systems lacking technical interoperability, the product data management (PDM) system and the customer requirements database. Causing negative impacts such as increased manual administrative load, late design revisions and extended lead times. From the discussion it can be derived that by increasing the technical interoperability of said systems, the aforementioned issues can be mitigated, enhancing the overall manufacturing design integration.

Background: Supplier involvement in product development has proven beneficial for companies and is a phenomenon researched in various domains. The definitions of supplier involvement represent points of origin and dimensions addressed in research. Still, there is no overview of these definitions and dimensions. This study reviews current definitions of the phenomenon of supplier involvement in product development and develops a conceptual model outlining its main dimensions. Methods: A systematic literature review is conducted to provide an overview of explicit definitions of supplier involvement in product development. By identifying the elements of these definitions, a conceptual model is developed to demonstrate how the phenomenon has been conceptualized in literature. Results: The results include an overview of 47 explicit definitions of supplier involvement in product development, a conceptual model including the identified dimensions, research gaps, and questions for future research. Conclusions: Supplier involvement in product development is a complex phenomenon with interdependencies between its key dimensions. A conceptual model of supplier involvement is presented, which is useful for categorizing research to identify research gaps and avenues for future research.

Digital transformation is complicated in International Manufacturing Networks (IMNs), where factories are spread globally, and actions are interdependent. Adapting organizational structures is one way to handle the demands and expectations posed by digital transformation. However, research covering the adaptations to the IT organization is limited, and this paper's purpose is to explore adaptations of IT organizations within IMNs during digital transformation. A multiple case study was performed, studying two manufacturing companies’ adaptations of the IT organization. The result reveals three phases of adaptations of the IT organization: the foundation phase, the mapping phase, and the coordinating phase. The phases are accompanied by the setup of a new operational IT function that works with digital transformation in the IMNs. Also, the interfaces and collaboration between the operational IT function and the factories in the IMNs are identified. Lastly, it highlights remaining challenges with the adaptations of the IT organization that need further research. 

PurposeCoordination of digital transformation within globally dispersed factories belonging to international manufacturing networks (IMNs) is essential for competitiveness. This paper explores how digital transformation necessitates changes in the coordination of IMNs.Design/methodology/approachA case study is conducted with three Swedish manufacturing companies, thus adding to the limited empirical research covering the examined research field. Data analysis uses the technology-organization-environment (TOE) framework.FindingsThe results highlight 15 digital transformation attributes linked by intermediate themes to 13 changes in the coordination of IMNs and provide concrete industry examples. Four major themes emerged as significant in the coordination of IMNs: increased speed of technology development and rollout, amplified emphasis on a global mindset, increased need to adapt the organizational structures to enable collaboration and a higher degree of uncertainty.Originality/valueAlthough coordination of IMNs is acknowledged as directly related to competitive advantage, the ways digital transformation necessitates changes in the coordination of IMNs have been missing in contemporary research. This research decreases this omission.

Digital transformation of production systems is a challenging task that demands radical responses from existing organizations. During the digital transformation of productions systems tensions occur that need to be managed and the purpose of this paper is to identify paradoxes in the digital transformation of production systems. Paradox theory has been applied as an analytical framework when identifying digital transformation paradoxes and tensions. A case study has been conducted and two manufacturing companies’ digitalization projects have been studied and analyzed in combination with data from workshops around digital transformation. The results were mapped into four types of paradoxes: organizing, performing, belonging, and learning. We conclude that the identified tensions are intertwined, and a major tension is the degree of standardization of technologies (standardization vs customization) and a more agile way of working (learning by doing vs learning before) doing is a trend within the digital transformation of production system. Our findings are relevant to operations managers and others interested in tensions during the digital transformation of production systems.