Purpose – To achieve high reconfigurability in a manufacturing system, six characteristics need to be implemented, where each characteristic contributes to different benefits when implemented. How these benefits are influenced by a volume reduction is not investigated in the literature. Therefore, the study aims to investigate how volume reduction affects the benefits of reconfigurable manufacturing systems (RMS).

Method – The study is a qualitative single case study with quantitative features. The case company selected is a Swedish automotive company and the unit of analysis was the benefits of RMS. Two similar RMS with different capacity levels at the case company were compared to achieve the purpose of the study. The data was collected through interviews at the case company, as well as through a document study containing data collected by the case company.

Findings – The findings showed that the throughput time was decreased in a volume reduction context due to the decreased production capacity. However, the quality was improved in a volume reduction context by 19%. The case company is scalable with the people in the system before evaluating the need to remove machines from it to decrease the capacity. Moreover, benefits related to social sustainability were identified in the data collected, where the stress level of operators was improved in a volume reduction context.

Implications – Scalability enables easy and rapid capacity reduction in a manufacturing system, however, scaling with people is easier than removing machines physically. There is a lack of focus on social sustainability and the human system in RMS literature, thus, it needs to be further investigated. There are RMS benefits not influenced by a volume reduction, and even if the quality was improved in a volume reduction context, it is unclear if the RMS characteristic or other factors influenced it.

Limitations – The single case study was carried out in retrospect. Therefore, finding interviewees at the company that could recall information was a challenge. Most of the literature found on RMS benefits is related to the same author, which may have affected the credibility.