Understanding the relationship between volume and variety helps manufacturers design processes that meet market needs while effectively managing costs and resources. It’s a key consideration in staying competitive in today’s dynamic economy.

A Swarm Production system is based on structural and logical self-organisation capable of emulating line, matrix and autonomously reconfigurable layouts.  This is possible by envisioning factories employing autonomous robots as carriers for products and workstations performing processes on the products. A Swarm Production philosophy aims to strike the right balance between volume and variety, which manufacturers need. A Swarm Production has the potential to be applied in industries benefiting from the economy of scale i.e. automotive assembly lines and consumer electronics; as well as personalised consumer-specific manufacturing.

The outcome of this thesis is novel topology planning and swarm management systems addressing unique challenges regarding planning and control. A reference architecture to alleviate the holistic adoption of Swarm Production onto the factory floor. The research embodies software systems exemplifying proposed frameworks and architectures intended to benefit researchers and manufacturing industries. The thesis concludes with a proof-of-concept simulation that validates the expectations of varying volume and variety needs.