New product similarity index development with application to an assembly system typology selection

Abstract The choice of an adapted production system is essential in today’s volatile market environment. For this choice the identification of common and distinct assemblies in between the product variants is of high importance. This paper presents four new similarity indices which are aggregated to categorize products. The categorization will support the choice of an assembly system type (dedicated, reconfigurable or hybrid) for a selection of product subassemblies when designing a new production facility. On this way, operational areas for a reconfigurable system can be defined. The novel approach is applied to an industrial case study in automotive industry.