Changeable and Reconfigurable Manufacturing Systems discusses key strategies for success in the changing manufacturing environment. Changes can often be anticipated but some go beyond the design range, requiring innovative change enablers and adaptation mechanisms. The book presents the new concept of Changeability as an umbrella framework that encompasses paradigms such as agility, adaptability, flexibility and reconfigurability. It provides the definitions and classification of key terms in this new field, and emphasizes the required physical/hard and logical/soft change enablers. The book presents cutting edge technologies and the latest research, as well as future directions to help manufacturers stay competitive. It contains original contributions and results from senior international experts, together with industrial applications. The book serves as a comprehensive reference for professional engineers, managers, and academics in manufacturing, industrial and mechanical engineering.

Hoda A. ElMaraghy, Ph.D., P.Eng., is currently Canada Research Chair in Manufacturing Systems, Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering and Director of the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Centre at the University of Windsor. She is a Fellow of the Canadian Society of Mechanical Engineers (CSME), Fellow of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME), Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP), Member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and an International Director for the American Society for Manufacturing Engineers. Her teaching and research interests are in manufacturing systems design, modeling, flexibility, reconfiguration, control, quality, inspection, assembly, process planning and robotics. Prof. ElMaraghy is one of the pioneering researchers who contributed to the introduction of technologies such as flexible manufacturing and reconfigurable manufacturing, as well as changeable manufacturing. She has acted as a consultant to industry internationally where the results of her research were used to improve the productivity and competitiveness of many manufacturers.

Definitions and Strategies.- Changeability An Introduction.- Changing and Evolving Products and Systems Models and Enablers.- Focused Flexibility in Production Systems.- Physical Enablers Manufacturing Machinery and Hardware.- Control of Reconfigurable Machine Tools.- Reconfigurable Machine Tools for a Flexible Manufacturing System.- Reconfigurable Machine Tools and Equipment.- Changeable and Reconfigurable Assembly Systems.- Logical Enablers Reconfigurable Control Systems for Robots.- Unified Dynamic and Control Models for Reconfigurable Robots.- Reconfigurable Control of Constrained Flexible Joint Robots Interacting with Dynamic and Changeable Environment.- Logical Enablers Process Planning.- Reconfiguring Process Plans: A New Approach to Minimize Change.- Logical Enablers Production and Capacity Planning and Control.- Adaptive Production Planning and Control Elements and Enablers of Changeability.- Component Oriented Design of Change-Ready MPC Systems.- Dynamic Capacity Planning and Modeling Its Complexity.- Managing and Justifying Change in Manufacturing Products and Systems Design, Planning and Management.- Design for Changeability.- Changeability Effect on Manufacturing Systems Design.- Managing Change and Reconfigurations of CNC Machine Tools.- Managing and Justifying Change in Manufacturing Cost and Quality Management.- Economic and Strategic Justification of Changeable, Reconfigurable and Flexible Manufacturing.- Quality and Maintainability Frameworks for Changeable and Reconfigurable Manufacturing.- Maintenance Strategies for Changeable Manufacturing.- Future Directions.- The Cognitive Factory.- Migration Manufacturing A New Concept for Automotive Body Production.- Changeable Factory Buildings An Architectural View.