In today’s global competition, product lifecycles become shorter and new products are released at the market in a rapid pace. A successful ramp-up is vital to reach the target production capacity on time and create a competitive advantage. The complexity of a ramp-up increases with the number of novel factors. This study invented a new term for the novel situation: Ramp-Up of a New Production system, new Organisation and new Product (RUNPOP). The RUNPOP phase starts at Start Of Production (SOP) and ends when target production capacity is reached. The term RUNPOP covers companies with a new organisational structure that produce a new product, in a new production system of which the organisation possesses limited knowledge. A successful RUNPOP phase is defined as reaching target production capacity on time and achieving all initial company-specific objectives. The contribution of this study is guidelines to companies starting a RUNPOP or currently in a RUNPOP by providing several crucial factors and proposals on how to address them. 

A case study was conducted to collect data within the topic of RUNPOP, the result has been generalised to be useful for European companies in a RUNPOP. The study had an abductive approach with systematic combination method and used a modified version of a thematic analysis for data analysis. This was combined with literature to analyse the empirical data from interviews and workshops which resulted in crucial factors to consider during a RUNPOP.

The seven crucial factors are Flow, Pre-study, Knowledge, Goal, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), Planning and Organisation. Key findings are that there are commonly uncertainties within a RUNPOP, which requires special treatment. The recommendation is to run the processes at highest possible speed from start in order to shed light on problems earlier. Next proposal is to evaluate if process productivity or process efficiency should be the focus during the specific RUNPOP. Focus should be to develop processes, for example increase OEE and create an efficient flow before adding more shifts to increase the output, which is aligned to the first key finding. Further, knowledge is mostly created by accumulated production in a RUNPOP, employees with collected knowledge are therefore extra valuable. Hence, this study recommends companies to increase team spirit and motivation, but there are many other recommendations available in order to keep employees longer. Finally, the relationship with process suppliers must be open and well developed, process suppliers need to be informed about the complexity of a RUNPOP once initiating the relationship.