Systematisation of Planning Domains for Manufacturing Innovation Projects

Technological developments, a globalised market, and shortened product life cycles are challenging manufacturing companies to realise potential through the implementation of innovation. However, companies struggle to implement transformational innovation projects because project planning often lacks a holistic understanding of the various relevant aspects. Manufacturing innovation projects (MIPs) typically require significant resources and involve a complex system of technologies, humans, and organisational processes. Hence, the planning and implementation of MIPs is particularly critical. However, scientific approaches mainly focus on individual planning domains and do not consider different planning domains in a manufacturing-specific and industrially applicable manner. Therefore, the aim of this study is to present a holistic systematisation of the relevant planning domains for MIPs. Hence, a four-stage research approach using structured literature reviews, semi-structured expert interviews and an expert workshop was applied. As a result, a systematisation was developed consisting of the three planning domains of Technology, Organisation and People, which are further systematised based on eight planning areas and 26 planning aspects. Based on the results, it was concluded that planning approaches should take a holistic view and consider the systematisation of the planning domains to enable structured MIP planning.