A just-in-time supply pickup and delivery system (JSS) manages the logistic operations between a manufacturing plant and its suppliers by controlling the sequence, timing, and frequency of container pickups and parts deliveries, thereby coordinating internal conveyance, external conveyance, and the operation of cross-docking facilities. The system is important to just-in-time production lines that maintain small inventories. This research studies the logistics, supply chain, and production control of JSS. First, a new meta-heuristics approach (taboo search) is developed to solve a general frequency routing (GFR) problem that has been formulated in this dissertation with five types of constraints: flow, space, load, time, and heijunka. Also, a formulation for cross-dock routing (CDR) has been created and solved. Second, seven issues concerning the structure of JSS systems that employ the previously studied common frequency routing (CFR) problem (Chuah and Yingling, in press) are explored to understand their impacts on operational costs of the system. Finally, a discreteevent simulation model is developed to study JSS by looking at different types of variations in demand and studying their impacts on the stability of inventory levels in the system. The results show that GFR routes at high frequencies do not have common frequencies in the solution. There are some common frequencies at medium frequencies and none at low frequency, where effectively the problem is simply a vehicle routing problem (VRP) with time windows. CDR is an extension of VRP-type problems that can be solved quickly with meta-heuristic approaches. GFR, CDR, and CFR are practical routing strategies for JSS with taboo search or other types of meta-heuristics as solvers. By comparing GFR and CFR solutions to the same problems, it is shown that the impacts of CFR restrictions on cost are minimal and in many cases so small as to make simplier CFR routes desirable. The studies of JSS structural features on the operating costs of JSS systems under the assumption of CFR routes yielded interesting results. First, when suppliers are clustered, the routes become more efficient at mid-level, but not high or low, frequencies. Second, the cost increases with the number of suppliers. Third, negotiating broad time windows with suppliers is important for cost control in JSS systems. Fourth, an increase or decrease in production volumes uniformly shifts the solutions cost versus frequency curve. Fifth, increased vehicle capacity is important in reducing costs at low and medium frequencies but far less important at high frequencies. Lastly, load distributions among the suppliers are not important determinants of transportation costs as long as the average loads remain the same. Finally, a one-supplier, one-part-source simulation model shows that the systems inventory level tends to be sticky to the reordering level. JSS is very stable, but it requires reliable transportation to perform well. The impact to changes in kanban levels (e.g., as might occur between route planning intervals when production rates are adjusted) is relatively long term with dynamic after-effects on inventory levels that take a long time to dissapate. A gradual change in kanban levels may be introduced, prior to the changeover, to counter this effect.

by Ng Kwok-pui. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991. / Bibliography: leaves 63-64. / abstract --- p.ii / table of contents --- p.iii / LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS --- p.vi / acknowledgments --- p.vii / Chapter / Chapter I. --- introduction --- p.1 / Chapter II. --- MANUFACTURING RESOURCES PLANNING (MRPII) AND JUST-IN-TIME (JIT) PHILOSOPHY --- p.5 / MRPII vs JIT: Comments from Two Articles --- p.5 / Manufacturing Resources Planning and Control System (MRPII) in XYZ --- p.7 / Inventory Control --- p.7 / Bills of Materials --- p.8 / Master Production Scheduling --- p.8 / Material Requirements Planning --- p.9 / Routing/Work Center --- p.9 / Capacity Requirements Planning --- p.10 / Shop Floor Control --- p.10 / Cost Accounting --- p.11 / Lot Traceability --- p.11 / Sales Order Processing --- p.12 / Purchasing --- p.12 / Materials Receiving --- p.13 / General Ledger (G/L) --- p.13 / Accounts Receivable (A/R) --- p.13 / Accounts Payable --- p.14 / Payroll --- p.14 / Personnel Management --- p.14 / Fixed Assets Management --- p.15 / CAD/Quotation/BOM System --- p.15 / Export Documentation --- p.15 / Problems with MRPII --- p.15 / What is JIT? --- p.18 / Problems with JIT --- p.21 / Integrating JIT with MRPII --- p.23 / Chapter III. --- HOW CAN A HYBRID SYSTEM OF MRP AND JIT BE APPLIED TO XYZ? --- p.29 / XYZ's Performance in MRPII and JIT --- p.29 / Other Problems with the Production Control System --- p.30 / What Hybrid System will Best Suit XYZ? --- p.32 / Integrating MRPII and JIT through Software Unification --- p.34 / Manufacturing Specifications --- p.36 / Materials Planning --- p.38 / Manufacturing Control --- p.39 / Integration of MRP and JIT --- p.40 / Implication of Software Unification to XYZ? --- p.42 / Chapter IV. --- CONCLUSION --- p.45 / APPENDIXES / Appendix 1 --- p.47 / Appendix 2 --- p.53 / Appendix 3 --- p.58 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.63

D. Tech. Mechanical Engineering. / Describes reconfigurable manufacturing (RM) is a paradigm that promises to meet the turbulent demands in current global manufacturing. The major findings of this thesis are as follows; 1. The functional description of the machine tool provides a handy mechanism of aiding COTS machine builders come up with vary configurations of machine tools and their classification from a predefined set of COTS modules. 2. The process of linking the respective part demands to the relevant COTS RMT is a rigorous and tiresome process that demands computational power provided for by the KBS. 3. The subjective linguistic manner of linking the parts and the machine configuration can be managed by including an objective constraint for the fuzzy model. 4. Coupling the decision making using a mathematical model with the use of a KBS brings about the optimum route to arriving to the desired configuration.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.T.R.P)-University Natal, Durban, 1999.

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- McMaster University, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2005. / Griffin, Paul, Committee Member ; Ferguson, Mark, Committee Member ; Billings, Ronald, Committee Member ; Zhou, Chen, Committee Chair ; Reveliotis, Spiridon, Committee Member. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.M.S.)--Carleton University, 1999. / Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1995. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 233-242).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Yale University, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-210).

The just-in-time purchasing literature resoundingly endorses long-term, cooperative buyer-supplier relationships. Significant anecdotal and descriptive evidence indicates that such relationships are rare in practice, raising questions as to the performance consequences of this gulf between theory and practice. Using an accepted theoretical model of the buyer-supplier relationship, transaction cost economics, this study examined the purchasing performance implications of the nature of the buyer-supplier relationship under just-in-time exchange. The focal purpose of the study was to examine the performance consequences of crafting long-term, cooperative relationships. The research design employed was a cross-sectional field study, involving a static-group comparison, implemented through the use of a mail survey. A dual-stage cluster sample of eight hundred purchasing managers and professionals employed in the two digit Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) Code 36, Electronic and Other Electrical Equipment and Components, was provided by the National Association of Purchasing Management (NAPM). The questionnaire was pretested and the substantive validity of the measurement scales assessed. Scales were purified via correlational and reliability analyses. Criterion-related and construct validity were established via correlational, exploratory factor, and confirmatory factor analyses. The three hypotheses of the study, involving extant tests of the association between the nature of the buyer-supplier relationship and purchasing performance (i.e., as reflected by transaction costs), were tested via analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) models. All three hypotheses were supported by the data to varying degrees. The confirmation of the theoretical model of the study provides empirical evidence to researchers and practitioners as to the superiority, in exchange efficiency terms, of cooperative relationships under conditions of just-in-time exchange. It may not be presumed, however, that cooperative exchange will enhance efficiency in all exchange environments.