Computational mechanics approach to managing complexity in manufacturing systems

Complexity has been identified as a ubiquitous and ever increasing property of manufacturing systems. Conventional theories of management lack the tools to describe, analyse, and manage complexity, and can, in turn, no longer cope with the issues it gives rise to. New approaches are offered by complexity science, namely by computational mechanics. In the paper, a method for complexity assessment is proposed and illustrated on real industrial data. The results of the presented case study suggest a distinct relationship between complexity and throughput, and indicate that the tool used has a major impact on complexity.