Thesis Work - Quantifying Manufacturing Flexibility

30 hp – Quantifying Manufacturing Flexibility

Introduction

At Scania Transmission Manufacturing – do you want to be part of shaping the future of manufacturing processes by making production flexibility measurable?

As manufacturing environments face increasing demands for product variation, changing production volumes, and technological development, flexibility is becoming an important factor in designing and improving production systems. Understanding and quantifying manufacturing flexibility can support better investment decisions, more efficient resource utilization, and long-term production adaptability.

Thesis project at Scania is an excellent way of making contacts for your future working life. Many of our current employees started their career with a thesis project.

Background

Manufacturing flexibility is essential for adapting production systems to changing volumes, product variations, and future requirements. However, measuring and comparing flexibility between different manufacturing solutions remains challenging.

Objective

The objective of this thesis is to investigate and develop methods for quantifying manufacturing flexibility within an existing assessment framework under development at Scania.

The focus is on establishing meaningful assessment criteria, measurable indicators and appropriate evaluation scales that enable consistent and transparent comparisons of manufacturing alternatives.

Job description

The thesis will build upon an ongoing development project at Scania, where a structured framework for evaluating manufacturing alternatives has already been established.

You will investigate existing research and methodologies for assessing manufacturing flexibility, with particular focus on how qualitative and quantitative indicators can be translated into meaningful and comparable assessments.

The work will include defining assessment criteria, investigating suitable rating scales, and exploring how different levels of flexibility can be interpreted in relation to specific manufacturing needs.

The proposed methodology will be evaluated through selected industrial cases, with emphasis on consistency, practical applicability and limitations.

The expected outcomes are:

• Proposed assessment criteria and evaluation scales for selected flexibility indicators.
• Guidelines for interpreting low, medium and high flexibility in different manufacturing contexts.
• Evaluation of assessment consistency and applicability through industrial case studies.
• Recommendations for integrating the findings into Scania's ongoing development of a manufacturing decision-support model.

Education/program/focus

Master students in industrial engineering, production engineering

Number of students: 1

Start date for the thesis work: 2027-01-18

Estimated time required: 20 weeks

Supervisor

Victor Ståhl
victor.stahl@scania.com
+46707945734

Application:

Your application must include a CV

A background check might be conducted for this position. We are conducting interviews continuously and may close the recruitment earlier than the date specified.    

Publication date from - to.
2026-11-10–2026-11-30