Open Access

Julian Stang, Jan Joppien, Harsh Mulrav, Christina Reuter

• Manufacturing companies today face unprecedented levels of uncertainty and complexity in their operations. Rapidly evolving customer demands, shrinking product life cycles, and shortened innovation cycles make frequent production ramp-ups necessary. These ramp-up phases, however, are highly vulnerable to disruptions caused by unknown process and product conditions, often leading to costly delays and inefficiencies. This article presents a novel, attribute-based approach for systematically describing disruptions and their corresponding mitigation decisions during production ramp-ups. Through a comprehensive systematic literature review, key disruptions and mitigation decisions were identified, which were then transferred into descriptive and functional attributes. The proposed approach was rigorously validated through expert evaluations in two focus group discussions – first with seven methodological experts and second with seven industrial and two scientific experts. By categorizing and structuring the disruptions and the mitigation decisions, this approach not only enhances the understanding of their impact on production systems but also provides a practical framework for decision-making. At a time when agility and resilience are critical to survival, this method offers a transformative step toward mastering the complexities of modern manufacturing.