Mini Factory: A Successful Model for European Furniture Industry?

Manufacturing system based on mini factory is one of the modern pervasive production models spreading as a response to demand for customized products with low cost and fast delivery time. However, as the term is far from being uniform and unique, its application in research and industry by managers is still challenging and represents somehow a riddle. Consequently, the various meanings associated with the term mini factory in literature are critically assayed. The results depicted three main areas of the model of mini factory: "Work organisation model", "Agile Assembly Architecture" and "Distributed mini factories network". Steming out from the third model, the possibility of using the mini factory model presented by Reichwald, Stotko & Piller was explored. Indeed, due to its characteristics, this model seems to be able to respond more effectively to the challenges in the European furniture sector, in particular for SMEs.

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