Abstract
The objective of this work is to develop a concept for the systematic design of a franchise Production System with geographically distributed production units, which are both changeable, scalable and replicable. The concept should also ensure that the designed Production System could be tested and then implemented guaranteeing a continuously adaptation in terms of changeability. There are already many research approaches that deal with changeable Production Systems that can be adapted to the changing environment. These approaches, however, have mostly a very universal and general character on specific characteristics or requirements of specific production sectors or forms of organization. This work is dedicated to a specific organizational form, namely that of franchising with geographically distributed production and tried, using the developed concept, to develop a customized business model for this production system. The topic of this work is of particular relevance because it follows the trend towards flexible and customer-oriented and decentralized production and their network. Simultaneously, the work aims to improve the adaptability of production units through modularity and scalability of the Production System. Franchising as an organizational form gains in recent years and decades, more and more importance and is growing much faster than the overall economy. In recent decades, research has been done in franchising almost exclusively on economic and legal side - it was missing completely a guide to plan, design and implement a production system within franchise networks. Thus, this work is to close this gap in research.