Development of an assessment system based on manufacturing readiness level for smart manufacturing and supplier selection

The world is now going through another industrial revolution and developed countries and global manufacturing enterprises are developing Smart Manufacturing Systems (SMS) in order to prepare for the rapid changes of the revolution. Manufacturing companies based on SMS have to select appropriate suppliers for smart product development and agile production. The Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) is a systematic and transparent quantitative measurement criterion of the problems expected in the decision-making process and supports decision-making on whether or not to proceed to the next stage process. In this paper, an MRL-based assessment system is introduced for smart manufacturing and supplier selection. For this, MRL threads are mapped with the functions of manufacturing software systems and SMS-related international standards by an IDEF0 functional modelling. Then, an empirical assessment approach based on Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) is described and the assessment system is elucidated. Finally, a case study based on the system is demonstrated.