Extension of Manufacturing System Design Decomposition to Implement Manufacturing Systems That are Sustainable

This paper offers an extension of axiomatic design theory to ensure that leaders, managers, and engineers can sustain manufacturing systems throughout the product lifecycle. The paper has three objectives: to provide a methodology for designing and implementing manufacturing systems to be sustainable in the context of the enterprise, to define the use of performance metrics and investment criteria that sustain manufacturing, and to provide a systems engineering approach that enables continuous improvement (CI) and adaptability to change. The systems engineering methodology developed in this paper seeks to replace the use of the word “lean” to describe the result of manufacturing system design. Current research indicates that within three years of launch, ninety percent of “lean implementations” fail. This paper provides a methodology that leaders, managers, and engineers may use to sustain their manufacturing system design and implementation. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4034303]