Dear Professor Lagos,

Thank you for raising this interesting question

It is our view that manufacturing system reconfiguration is a process of adapting a manufacturing system or facility to better suit the manufacturing requirements that have changed due to variation in demand. Therefore, we should say that this adaptation can be required in both repetitive and non-repetitive production paradigms because, of changing manufacturing requirements with demand. However, we may argue that in a non-repetitive paradigm, if we are willing to reconfigure the system as demand changes, this theoretically would be required every time a new order or a set of orders is to be released into the system for manufacturing. The need for frequent reconfiguration also applies when repetitive production occurs. Due to the repetitive nature, however, the reconfiguration process may be easier and faster. This is because of the learning effects from previous reconfigurations and because, particularly for the uniform flow production situation, there is a need for minor adjustments. Minor adjustments may also be required to the intermittent flow situation if manufacturing requirements do not change much from order to order.