Exploring Challenges in a Low-Volume Product Industrialization Process - A Railway Case Study.

The manufacturing industry is faced with a market environment that continuously grows more competitive. Achieving a short time to market is of vital importance to manufacturing companies that are characterized by low-volumes and high customization due to the already existing long lead times. An important process that transfers a product from design concept to production is the product industrialization process. This process plays a critical role as an interface between product development and production and any interruptions can have a significant effect on the overall time to market of a product. Research on the industrialization process and its challenges have mostly been conducted within a high-volume manufacturing, but what is currently lacking is exploring this process from the perspective of low-volume manufacturing. A case study was conducted within a low volume large equipment manufacturing company, analyzing their product industrialization process. The purpose of this article is to identify challenges within the process as well as to identify the effects these challenges have on the industrialization process. The findings from this case study identified 10 challenges within the low volume industrialization process that were grouped into four categories, relating to organizational, standardization, external, and technological factors.