Postponement is widely recognised as an approach that can lead to superior supply chains, and its application is widely observed as a growing trend in manufacturing. Form postponement (FPp) involves the delay of final manufacturing until a customer order is received and is commonly regarded as an approach to mass customisation. However, while much is written in the literature on the benefits and strategic impact of FPp, little is still known about its application. Thus this research project aims to address how FPp is applied in terms of the operational implications within the manufacturing facility. Here the ‘postponed’ manufacturing processes are performed in the factory where the preceding processes are carried out. An in-depth case study research design was developed and involved case studies at three manufacturing facilities, which provided diverse contexts in which to study FPp applications. Each case study incorporated multiple units of analysis which were based around product groups subject to different inventory management policies – FPp, make to order (MTO) and make to stock (MTS). The same research design was used in each study and involved both qualitative and quantitative evidence. Qualitative evidence was gathered via structured interviews and included the operational changes required to apply FPp in a previously MTO and MTS environment. Eleven quantitative variables, providing a broad based measurement instrument, were compared across the three units of analysis to test the hypotheses. This combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence in the case studies helped to triangulate the research findings. Comparison between the three case studies provided further conclusions regarding operational implications that were context specific and those which were not. The research concludes that the manufacturing planning system presents a major obstacle to the application of FPp in a MTO and MTS environment. In spite of this, and even when the FPp application is flawed, the benefits of FPp still justify its application. The research also contributes two frameworks: one which determines when FPp is a viable alternative to MTO or MTS; and another that illustrates the major operational implications of applying FPp to a product exhibiting component swapping modularity.

Kandidatuppsats i logistik för Civilekonomprogrammet (15 hp) Linnéuniversitetet, 2FE25E, VT16 Författare: Erik Karlsson, Faton Leku & Jeppe Lindström Handledare: Hana Hulthén Examinator: Åsa Gustavsson Titel: Effektivisering av lager för produkter i arbete Bakgrund: Ett tillverkningsföretag har ofta flera varianter av lager som till exempel färdigvarulager, säkerhetslager och produkter i arbete-lager. Produkter i arbete brukar benämnas som PIA. PIA-lagrets utformning är en viktig del för hur flödet i en verksamhet ser ut och fungerar. Syfte: Syftet är att föreslå en förbättrad hantering av PIA-lager för att bidra till ökad effektivisering av internt materialflöde. Metodval: Studien utgår ifrån en kvalitativ fallstudie. Studien utgår ifrån observationer på fallföretaget samt semistrukturerade intervjuer. Slutsatser: Vi kan efter genomförd studie påvisa att det finns skillnader mellan vad som beskrivs i teorin och hur PIA-lagret på Proton Lighting faktiskt ser ut. Det som har påvisats i jämförelsen mellan dessa är att MTO-artikeln är den som prioriteras före MTS-artikeln. Det innebär att lagringskostnaderna för MTS-artiklar automatiskt blir högre då MTO-artiklarna alltid har företräde i produktionen. Det finns inte heller någon fast artikelplacering i PIA-lagren vilket gör att artikelkomponenterna kan placeras var som helst i PIA-lagren, vilket leder till en ökning av de interna transporterna. Nyckelord: Produkter i arbete, lager, lagerlayout, make-to-order, make-to-stock, artikelplacering / Bachelor thesis, Program of Master of Science in Business and Economics School of Business and Economics at Linnaeus University in Växjö 2FE25E, spring 2016 Authors: Erik Karlsson, Faton Leku and Jeppe Lindström Advisor: Hana Hulthén Examiner: Åsa Gustavsson Title: Improving the efficiency of work in process inventory Background: A manufacturing company often has varieties of inventories, for example inventory of finished products, safety stocks and work in process inventory. The shaping of the WIP inventory is very important for a business since the other activities linked to the WIP inventory are effected of the shaping of the WIP inventory. Purpose: The purpose is to suggest an improved utilization process of WIP inventory in order to support an efficiency of internal flow of materials. Methodology: The study applies a qualitative case study. The study is based on observations at the case company together with semi-structured interviews. Conclusions: After concluded study we can show that there are differences between what is described in the theory and how the actual WIP inventory is constructed at Proton Lighting. What has been shown in the comparison between the theory and the collected data is that the MTO-flow precede the MTS-flow. Automatically the MTS-article gets a higher inventory cost because of the preceding of the MTO-article. There is not a fixed placement for the articles in the WIP inventories which can result in that the articles are placed anywhere in the factories WIP inventories, which leads to an increase of the internal transports. Keywords: Work in process, inventory, inventory layout, make-to-order, make-to-stock, article placement

With the success of Revenue Management (RM) techniques over the past three decades in various segments of the service industry, many manufacturing firms have started exploring innovative RM technologies to improve their profits. This dissertation studies RM for make-to-order (MTO) and make-to-stock (MTS) systems. We start with a problem faced by a MTO firm that has the ability to reject or accept the order and set prices and lead-times to influence demands. The firm is confronted with the problem to decide, which orders to accept or reject and trade-off the price, lead-time and potential for increased demand against capacity constraints, in order to maximize the total profits in a finite planning horizon with deterministic demands. We develop a mathematical model for this problem. Through numerical analysis, we present insights regarding the benefits of price customization and lead-time flexibilities in various demand scenarios. However, the demands of MTO firms are always hard to be predicted in most situations. We further study the above problem under the stochastic demands, with the objective to maximize the long-run average profit. We model the problem as a Semi-Markov Decision Problem (SMDP) and develop a reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm-Q-learning algorithm (QLA), in which a decision agent is assigned to the machine and improves the accuracy of its action-selection decisions via a “learning" process. Numerical experiment shows the superior performance of the QLA. Finally, we consider a problem in a MTS production system consists of a single machine in which the demands and the processing times for N types of products are random. The problem is to decide when, what, and how much to produce so that the long-run average profit. We develop a mathematical model and propose two RL algorithms for real-time decision-making. Specifically, one is a Q-learning algorithm for Semi-Markov decision process (QLS) and another is a Q-learning algorithm with a learning-improvement heuristic (QLIH) to further improve the performance of QLS. We compare the performance of QLS and QLIH with a benchmarking Brownian policy and the first-come-first-serve policy. The numerical results show that QLIH outperforms QLS and both benchmarking policies.

Postponement is widely recognised as an approach that can lead to superior supply chains, and its application is widely observed as a growing trend in manufacturing. Form postponement (FPp) involves the delay of final manufacturing until a customer order is received and is commonly regarded as an approach to mass customisation. However, while much is written in the literature on the benefits and strategic impact of FPp, little is still known about its application. Thus this research project aims to address how FPp is applied in terms of the operational implications within the manufacturing facility. Here the ‘postponed’ manufacturing processes are performed in the factory where the preceding processes are carried out. An in-depth case study research design was developed and involved case studies at three manufacturing facilities, which provided diverse contexts in which to study FPp applications. Each case study incorporated multiple units of analysis which were based around product groups subject to different inventory management policies – FPp, make to order (MTO) and make to stock (MTS). The same research design was used in each study and involved both qualitative and quantitative evidence. Qualitative evidence was gathered via structured interviews and included the operational changes required to apply FPp in a previously MTO and MTS environment. Eleven quantitative variables, providing a broad based measurement instrument, were compared across the three units of analysis to test the hypotheses. This combination of qualitative and quantitative evidence in the case studies helped to triangulate the research findings. Comparison between the three case studies provided further conclusions regarding operational implications that were context specific and those which were not. The research concludes that the manufacturing planning system presents a major obstacle to the application of FPp in a MTO and MTS environment. In spite of this, and even when the FPp application is flawed, the benefits of FPp still justify its application. The research also contributes two frameworks: one which determines when FPp is a viable alternative to MTO or MTS; and another that illustrates the major operational implications of applying FPp to a product exhibiting component swapping modularity.

No description available.

Submitted by Maicon Juliano Schmidt (maicons) on 2015-04-23T19:33:59Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ariel Peixoto Possebon.pdf: 3073454 bytes, checksum: 3123d6ee99ea9509d9a3ef1e02464701 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-23T19:33:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ariel Peixoto Possebon.pdf: 3073454 bytes, checksum: 3123d6ee99ea9509d9a3ef1e02464701 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-01-31 / Nenhuma / O Planejamento, Programação e Controle da Produção e dos Materiais é um importante processo do fluxo de informação que visa o desdobramento do Planejamento Estratégico para os níveis operacionais da empresa. Tais atividades, planejamento e programação, são atividades analíticas que envolvem a tomada de decisões que impactam na operação dos sistemas de produção. Para tomar estas decisões de forma correta, estes processos precisam da robustez necessária para auxiliar tais decisões. Na contrapartida, os sistemas de produção são diferentes aumentando ou diminuindo sua complexidade e consequentemente a forma como a empresa toma suas decisões. Neste contexto, este estudo pretende evidenciar quais são as diferenças existentes sob o prisma do PPCPM para dois tipos de sistemas de produção, os sistemas que atendem à demanda baseado em uma produção Make-To-Order (MTO), e os sistemas baseado em uma produção Make-To-Stock (MTS). Para tanto, a pesquisa foi realizada utilizando um Estudo de Caso múltiplo, considerando o PPCPM como sua unidade de análise. A partir desta análise, obteve-se como resultados desta pesquisa, as principais diferenças entre os processos de PPCPM para estes dois tipos de sistemas de produção com base nos casos estudados. / The Production Planning and Production Scheduling processes are important flow of information aimed at the deployment of the Strategic Planning for the operational levels of the company. Such activities, planning and scheduling, are analytical activities that involve making decisions that affect the operation of production systems. To make these decisions so correct, these processes require robustness needed to support these decisions. In contrast, the different production systems are increasing or decreasing its complexity and consequently how the company makes its decisions. In this context, this study aims to highlight what are the differences through the prism of PPCPM for two types of production systems, systems that meet the demand based on a production Make-To-Order (MTO), and systems based on a production Make-To-Stock (MTS). Therefore, the survey was conducted using a multiple case study, considering the PPCPM as unit of analysis. From this analysis, it was obtained as result of this research, the main differences between the PPCPM processes for these two types of production systems based on case studies.

I denna kandidatuppsats undersöks hur ett förändrat produktionsupplägg påverkar ett svensktproducerande företags konkurrenskraft när konkurrensen från globala lågprisalternativ medkort leveranstid ökar. Genom att byta produktionsupplägg från produktion mot lager tillmontering mot order och genom att standardisera artiklar och till viss del modulindelaprodukter kan kundorderpunkten flyttas bak i produktionsprocessen. Komponenternamonteras då ihop till slutprodukt först när kundordern anlänt, vilket bidrar till att antaletlagerförda variantartiklar minskar vilket är något som bidrar till en lägre kapitalbindning.Kostnadsbesparingen detta medför kan användas till att utveckla ordervinnande egenskaper.Exempel på sådana egenskaper är att förbättra kvaliteten på produkterna, öka mervärdet,förlänga garantin samt stärka varumärket som ett mer miljövänligt alternativ. / This Bachelor thesis examines how a changed production structure affects one Swedishmanufacturing corporation’s competitiveness, when competition from global low priceoptions with short delivery times is increasing. By switching production structure from “maketo stock” to “assembly to order” and by standardizing articles, to some extent, modularizeproducts, the customer order decoupling point moves back in the production process. Thecomponents are assembled into finished products when the orders arrive, thus helping toreduce the number of stocked variant articles, and generally to decrease the value of fixedcapital.The cost savings this entails can be used to develop order-winning properties, to improveproduct quality, increase the added value and extend the warranty or work to become anenvironmentally friendly alternative, which strengthens the brand.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2008-12-05Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:34:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 rodrigues_pcc_me_bauru.pdf: 661198 bytes, checksum: fd2070d60a4818ea36d1e95ea50627af (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / As organizações industriais vêm adotando modelos produtivos que priorizam a redução de custos e aumento da qualidade de seus processos e produtos. Neste contexto a otimização e racionalização da gestão de estoques é uma grande oportunidade para estas empresas conquistarem estes objetivos. Para a realização desta pesquisa optou-se pela metodologia de estudo de casos múltiplos (dois casos), para atender o objetivo de analisar a gestão de estoques em duas empresas do setor gráfico localizadas na região de Bauru, na qual uma adota o sistema produtivo Engineering-To-Order (ETO) e a outra o sistema produtivo Make-To-Stock (MTS). O qual foi alcançado por meio da triangulação dos meios de coleta de dados, ou seja, entrevista semi-estruturada, análise documental e observação in-loco e estes tiveram como embasamento o referencial teórico. Por meio da triangulação das informações obtidas durante a coleta de dados, pôde-se elaborar a descrição da gestão de estoques e do sistema produtivo adotado em cada uma das empresas apresentadas nos estudos de caso e a análise cruzada. Após estes procedimentos foi elaborada a análise da influência do sistema produtivo sobre a gestão de estoques, no qual foram analisados os seguintes itens: produção, previsão de demanda, sazonalidade, layout, gestão de estoques, setup, logística de suprimentos e logística de distribuição. / Industrial organizations are adopting productive models that prioritize the reduction of costs and increase the quality of their processes and products. In this context the optimization and streamlining the inventory management is a great opportunity for these companies conquer these goals. To achieve this research methodology was chosen for the study of multiple cases (two cases), to meet to evaluate the inventory management in two companies in the sector chart located in the region of Bauru, in which one adopts the production system. Which was achieved by means of triangulation of data collection, i.e., semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observation in loco and they were light as the theoretical framework. Through triangulation of information obtained during data collection, it was possible to develop a descritption of the inventory management and the production system used in each of the companies presented in case studies and crossexamination. After these procedures were developed to analyze the influence of the production system on the inventory management, which were analyzed in the following: production, estimates of demand, seasonality, layout, inventory management, setup, logistics supplies and logistics of distribution. While reviewing the analysis of the influence of the production system on the management of inventories could be observed some differences in relation to the literature, they are: logistics supply, distribution, inventory management, production systems Make-To-Stock and Engineering-To-Order.

Orientador: Otávio José de Oliveira / Banca: Fernando Bernardi de Souza / Banca: Marcel Andreotti Musetti / Resumo: As organizações industriais vêm adotando modelos produtivos que priorizam a redução de custos e aumento da qualidade de seus processos e produtos. Neste contexto a otimização e racionalização da gestão de estoques é uma grande oportunidade para estas empresas conquistarem estes objetivos. Para a realização desta pesquisa optou-se pela metodologia de estudo de casos múltiplos (dois casos), para atender o objetivo de analisar a gestão de estoques em duas empresas do setor gráfico localizadas na região de Bauru, na qual uma adota o sistema produtivo Engineering-To-Order (ETO) e a outra o sistema produtivo Make-To-Stock (MTS). O qual foi alcançado por meio da triangulação dos meios de coleta de dados, ou seja, entrevista semi-estruturada, análise documental e observação in-loco e estes tiveram como embasamento o referencial teórico. Por meio da triangulação das informações obtidas durante a coleta de dados, pôde-se elaborar a descrição da gestão de estoques e do sistema produtivo adotado em cada uma das empresas apresentadas nos estudos de caso e a análise cruzada. Após estes procedimentos foi elaborada a análise da influência do sistema produtivo sobre a gestão de estoques, no qual foram analisados os seguintes itens: produção, previsão de demanda, sazonalidade, layout, gestão de estoques, setup, logística de suprimentos e logística de distribuição. / Abstract: Industrial organizations are adopting productive models that prioritize the reduction of costs and increase the quality of their processes and products. In this context the optimization and streamlining the inventory management is a great opportunity for these companies conquer these goals. To achieve this research methodology was chosen for the study of multiple cases (two cases), to meet to evaluate the inventory management in two companies in the sector chart located in the region of Bauru, in which one adopts the production system. Which was achieved by means of triangulation of data collection, i.e., semi-structured interviews, document analysis and observation in loco and they were light as the theoretical framework. Through triangulation of information obtained during data collection, it was possible to develop a descritption of the inventory management and the production system used in each of the companies presented in case studies and crossexamination. After these procedures were developed to analyze the influence of the production system on the inventory management, which were analyzed in the following: production, estimates of demand, seasonality, layout, inventory management, setup, logistics supplies and logistics of distribution. While reviewing the analysis of the influence of the production system on the management of inventories could be observed some differences in relation to the literature, they are: logistics supply, distribution, inventory management, production systems Make-To-Stock and Engineering-To-Order. / Mestre

No description available.