Cluster analysis as a method for the planning of production systems

Today´s situation in manufacturing enterprises is characterized by unpredictability, high-frequency market changes and a turbulent environment. Changing order situation leads to new requirements with regard to output capacity. To some extent, companies have to meet contrary targets in order to stay competitive. These major targets are quality, cost and time. To achieve these targets in a balanced way, manufacturing companies need high flexibility as well as a high productivity at the same time. This is a paradigm shift especially for companies that produce standardized products. This paradigm shift also requires new planning methods. In the paper, the state of the art of methods for the designing of industrial facilities and their relevance to manufacturing enterprises is discussed. By studying those methods, it becomes apparent that planners in companies do not pay enough attention to the analysis of the current situation in production. For this stage of planning the authors improved the method of cluster analysis. The authors describe how to implement this method in industrial practice.