The production environment in Europe is characterized by a number of different challenges. Production volumes are hardly predictable due to the turbulent market [1]. Product life cycles become increasingly shorter [2]. Customers demand more individual and customized products, which leads to increasingly diversified product pallets [3]. The occurrence of changes on product and process, even for running productions, increases continuously [4]. At the same time the field of tension between assurance of quality, reduction of lead times and reduction of cost remains present [5].