En general el diseño de las políticas habitacionales ha prescindido del conocimiento de la demanda específica. La producción del hábitat popular ha sido a través del uso de técnicas constructivas industrializadas, adoptando estrategias de producción masiva, con una eficiente utilización de los recursos, pero ignorando las exigencias individuales de cada familia, la pluralidad y el dinamismo de la sociedad. En consecuencia surgen complejos que no se adecuan a las necesidades de la población, donde los usuarios intervienen incorporando necesidades no previstas en el desarrollo del producto. A partir de un escenario industrial competitivo donde la diversidad del mercado es un nuevo factor para las empresas, surge la customización masiva como una nueva estrategia, capaz de satisfacer a los consumidores con diferentes productos sin aumentar significativamente los costos y el tiempo de entrega. En programas habitacionales la oferta de customización es muy limitada debido principalmente a lograr una economía de escala de la producción. El objetivo principal de esta investigación fue proponer formas de retroalimentar el proceso de desarrollo del producto a partir de las intervenciones realizadas por los usuarios. Fueron realizados dos estudios de casos de programas residenciales, donde la participación del usuario en el desarrollo del producto es diferente. La investigación se realizó en tres etapas, siendo la primera etapa A de comprensión del proceso de desarrollo del producto, caracterizando la empresa y los emprendimientos. Fueron realizadas entrevistas con informantes calificados, visitas a los emprendimientos y análisis de documentos técnicos. La etapa B tuvo como objetivo la planificación del levantamiento de datos para capturar las informaciones de las intervenciones de los usuarios en la etapa de uso de las unidades. Para esto se realizóla colecta de datos a través de entrevistas, y cuestionarios estructurados a los usuarios, y análisis de las intervenciones a través de fotografías satelitales. La etapa C busco identificar oportunidades de procesamiento de los datos, para entender los requisitos de los usuarios y contribuir a mejorar el PDP. Se identificaron estrategias en el proceso de producción de un sistema industrializado de producción de viviendas, encontrando oportunidades de implementar mejoras en la capacidad de adaptabilidad del sistema a los cambios producidos por los usuarios, aumentando la variabilidad y flexibilidad de las opciones de viviendas ofrecidas por la empresa. Conjuntamente con la empresa fueron analizadas las intervenciones y se identificaron oportunidades para adoptar distintos grados de customización. Las principales contribuciones del trabajo es comprender cuales son los requisitos de los usuarios en la etapa de uso de las viviendas, para lograr un producto customizable en proyectos de vivienda de interés social y contribuir al desarrollo de productos industrializados que incorporen estos requisitos. / In general, housing policies have ignored knowledge on the specific needs of families in the design of housing projects. In fact, several industrialized building techniques have been used in social housing, often connected to the adoption of mass production ideas, with the aim of achieving a highly efficient use of resources, but ignoring the individual needs of each family, and the plurality and dynamism of the society. Consequently, there are many housing estates that do not fulfill the needs of the population, resulting in changes in the housing units carried out by the users so that their requirements can be properly considered. In an industrial setting that has growing competition, the diversity in the client needs has become a key factor for several companies in the manufacturing sector. In this context, mass customization has emerged as a new strategy, with the aim of satisfying users with different needs without significantly increasing costs and delivery time. However, in the social housing sector, very few programs offer the possibility of customization, mainly due to the need to achieve economies of scale. Thus, the aim of this research work is to propose guidelines for providing feedback to the product development process of social housing projects, based on product changes that have been made by the users after delivery. Two case studies were conducted in different residential projects, developed by the same company, in which the degree of user involvement in product development was different. The research method was divided into three stages. In stage A, the aim was to understand the product development process, the housing company involved in this investigation, as well as the three projects. The main sources of evidences used were interviews with company representatives, visits to the housing estates, and document analysis. Phase B involved the collection of data related to the product changes carried out by users in the three projects. The main sources of evidence used were interviews with a sample of users, direct observation of those changes, and analysis of interventions by using satellite photos. Phase C sought to propose guidelines for processing user requirement data, and to identify improvement opportunities in the product development process. Regarding the industrialized building system developed by the company, some improvements were proposed, mostly related to the capacity of adaptation of the system to the product changes often made by the users, increasing the variety and flexibility of the housing options offered by the company. In collaboration with company representatives, different degrees of customization were devised. The main contributions of this research work are concerned with how to capture and process requirements based on multiple sources of evidence, as well as to understand the nature of product changes demanded by the users, which can be useful for designing customized houses.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo evidenciar os benefícios que as transformações sociais contemporâneas, alimentadas pela evolução tecnológica interativa, podem exercer sobre a indústria automotiva, notadamente na questão de customização do produto. A fim de estreitar as relações entre o contexto histórico e as mudanças na indústria automotiva, o trabalho traça um paralelo entre as transformações vividas pela sociedade e a evolução dos automóveis, analisando como as mudanças de contexto afetaram a indústria automotiva. Da mesma forma, é pesquisado sobre como a evolução do automóvel moderno moldou o estilo de vida da sociedade, nos últimos 125 anos. A relação entre o contexto histórico e as mudanças na indústria automotiva é a base que o trabalho utiliza para justificar o emprego das novas tecnologias interativas nos automóveis.São analisadas novas tecnologias interativas existentes e em estágio avançado de desenvolvimento, notadamente aplicadas a smartphones e tablets, e a influência que essas estão tendo no modo de vida contemporâneo. Foi verificado que, apesar dos automóveis terem evoluído concomitantemente com a sociedade, nos mais de cem anos desde sua invenção, estão demorando a embarcar tais desenvolvimentos tecnológicos, continuando, em sua maioria, máquinas análogas e isoladas das outras partes que compõem o trânsito. Este trabalho se propõe a analisar tais tecnologias interativas, estudar quais podem ser embarcadas nos automóveis, exemplificando as possibilidades de aplicação das mesmas, através de um modelo tridimensional, criando um produto customizável em massa, condizente com as tendências sociais contemporâneas, que atenda o maior número de consumidores em potencial, com uma mesma linha de produto, evidenciando o diferencial competitivo que este proporcionaria ao seu fabricante ante a concorrência. / The objective of this paper is to highlight the benefits that contemporary social changes, fueled by the interactive technological evolution, can exert on the automotive industry, mainly in the aspect of product customization.In order to strengthen the relation between historical context and changes in automotive industry, this paper draws a parallel between social changes and automobile evolution, evidencing how context changes affect the automotive industry. Also, this paper demonstrate how the evolution of the modern automobile framed society life style in the past 125 years. The relation between historical context and automotive industry changes is the base that this paper use to justify the insertion of interactive technologies in automobiles.New and advance stage technologies are analyzed, mostly the ones applied to smartphones and tablets, and the influence of such technologies in contemporary lifestyle.It is shown that, despite cars have evolved together with society for over a century since its invention, they are holding up the insertion of this new technologies, remaining, mostly, analog machines isolated from the other traffic components.This paper proposes to analyze these interactive technologies, studing which one can be applied in automobiles, demonstrating the applications possibilities through a tridimensional model, creating a mass customizable product, consistent with contemporary social trends, that reach most of the potential buyers with a single product line, demonstrating this product manufacturer competitive advantage against competition.

No Brasil, o amplo incentivo e a disponibilidade de financiamento à produção habitacional de baixa renda, nos últimos anos têm estimulado a padronização do produto e aplicação de conceitos de produção em massa neste setor. No entanto, a entrega de produtos altamente padronizados a clientes com diferentes necessidades, desconsiderando seus modos de vida e percepções de valor, frequentemente resulta em produtos inadequados, os quais necessitam ser modificados logo após a entrega. A customização em massa tem se destacado como uma estratégia para aprimorar a geração de valor e aumentar o grau de satisfação de clientes na indústria da manufatura. No contexto da habitação de baixa renda, a definição de um conjunto de opções relevantes do ponto de vista dos clientes, baseado na sua percepção de valor, é um dos principais desafios para a implementação desta estratégica. O objetivo da presente pesquisa consiste em propor um método para identificar atributos customizáveis da empreendimentos habitacionais customizados, baseado em um modelo conceitual denominado cadeia meios-fim. Este modelo foi adaptado ao contexto de habitação de baixa renda, de forma a ser utilizado para relacionar os atributos do produto com os valores dos clientes, por meio da aplicação da técnica laddering. Além disso, a pesquisa tem como objetivo específico desenvolver dispositivos visuais que apoiem a tomada de decisão sobre a oferta de espaços de solução para unidades habitacionais customizadas. Com o objetivo de testar a aplicabilidade da solução desenvolvida, foram realizados dois estudos empíricos. O primeiro estudo foi desenvolvido para o segmento de mercado específico de uma empresa construtora de habitações, enquanto no segundo estudo fez-se a comparação de quatro segmentos de mercado delineados no Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida. A principal contribuição do método proposto é indicar as unidades de customização que são mais relevantes para os clientes finais e modelar a geração de valor na perspectiva dos usuários finais, de forma a entender as prioridades estabelecidas pelos mesmos. Além disso, os resultados permitem entender diferenças sobre a geração de valor para diferentes perfis de clientes e identificar oportunidades de melhoria em produtos habitacionais existentes. / In Brazil, high incentives and availability of funding for low-cost housing projects, in recent years, have encouraged product standardization and the application of mass production ideas in that sector. However, the delivery of highly standardized housing units to customers with different requirements, without considering their lifestyles and perceptions of value, often results in inadequate products, which need to be modified soon after delivery. Mass customization has been pointed out as an effective strategy to improve value generation and increase the degree of client satisfaction in the manufacturing industry. In the context of low-cost housing, the definition of a set of relevant options from the point of view of clients, based on their perceptions of value, is a major challenge for the implementation of this strategy. The aim of this research work is to propose a method for identifying value-adding attributes in customized housing projects, based on a conceptual model named means-end chain. That model was adapted to the low-cost housing context in order to connect product attributes to clients’ values, by applying the laddering technique. Besides, this investigation has the secondary aim of devising visual devices that can support decision-making related to the solution space of customised housing units. Two empirical studies were carried out in order to assess the applicability of the proposed solution. The first study was developed considering the specific market segment of a house-building company, while in the second study a comparison was made between four segments of the My House My Life Program. The main contribution of the proposed method is to identify which customization units are the most relevant ones for the final clients, as well as to model value generation from the point of view of clients, with the aim of understanding the priorities established by them. Moreover, the results explain differences in value generation for distinct client profiles, and identify improvement opportunities for existing housing products.

No Brasil, o amplo incentivo e a disponibilidade de financiamento à produção habitacional de baixa renda, nos últimos anos têm estimulado a padronização do produto e aplicação de conceitos de produção em massa neste setor. No entanto, a entrega de produtos altamente padronizados a clientes com diferentes necessidades, desconsiderando seus modos de vida e percepções de valor, frequentemente resulta em produtos inadequados, os quais necessitam ser modificados logo após a entrega. A customização em massa tem se destacado como uma estratégia para aprimorar a geração de valor e aumentar o grau de satisfação de clientes na indústria da manufatura. No contexto da habitação de baixa renda, a definição de um conjunto de opções relevantes do ponto de vista dos clientes, baseado na sua percepção de valor, é um dos principais desafios para a implementação desta estratégica. O objetivo da presente pesquisa consiste em propor um método para identificar atributos customizáveis da empreendimentos habitacionais customizados, baseado em um modelo conceitual denominado cadeia meios-fim. Este modelo foi adaptado ao contexto de habitação de baixa renda, de forma a ser utilizado para relacionar os atributos do produto com os valores dos clientes, por meio da aplicação da técnica laddering. Além disso, a pesquisa tem como objetivo específico desenvolver dispositivos visuais que apoiem a tomada de decisão sobre a oferta de espaços de solução para unidades habitacionais customizadas. Com o objetivo de testar a aplicabilidade da solução desenvolvida, foram realizados dois estudos empíricos. O primeiro estudo foi desenvolvido para o segmento de mercado específico de uma empresa construtora de habitações, enquanto no segundo estudo fez-se a comparação de quatro segmentos de mercado delineados no Programa Minha Casa Minha Vida. A principal contribuição do método proposto é indicar as unidades de customização que são mais relevantes para os clientes finais e modelar a geração de valor na perspectiva dos usuários finais, de forma a entender as prioridades estabelecidas pelos mesmos. Além disso, os resultados permitem entender diferenças sobre a geração de valor para diferentes perfis de clientes e identificar oportunidades de melhoria em produtos habitacionais existentes. / In Brazil, high incentives and availability of funding for low-cost housing projects, in recent years, have encouraged product standardization and the application of mass production ideas in that sector. However, the delivery of highly standardized housing units to customers with different requirements, without considering their lifestyles and perceptions of value, often results in inadequate products, which need to be modified soon after delivery. Mass customization has been pointed out as an effective strategy to improve value generation and increase the degree of client satisfaction in the manufacturing industry. In the context of low-cost housing, the definition of a set of relevant options from the point of view of clients, based on their perceptions of value, is a major challenge for the implementation of this strategy. The aim of this research work is to propose a method for identifying value-adding attributes in customized housing projects, based on a conceptual model named means-end chain. That model was adapted to the low-cost housing context in order to connect product attributes to clients’ values, by applying the laddering technique. Besides, this investigation has the secondary aim of devising visual devices that can support decision-making related to the solution space of customised housing units. Two empirical studies were carried out in order to assess the applicability of the proposed solution. The first study was developed considering the specific market segment of a house-building company, while in the second study a comparison was made between four segments of the My House My Life Program. The main contribution of the proposed method is to identify which customization units are the most relevant ones for the final clients, as well as to model value generation from the point of view of clients, with the aim of understanding the priorities established by them. Moreover, the results explain differences in value generation for distinct client profiles, and identify improvement opportunities for existing housing products.

Este trabalho tem como objetivo evidenciar os benefícios que as transformações sociais contemporâneas, alimentadas pela evolução tecnológica interativa, podem exercer sobre a indústria automotiva, notadamente na questão de customização do produto. A fim de estreitar as relações entre o contexto histórico e as mudanças na indústria automotiva, o trabalho traça um paralelo entre as transformações vividas pela sociedade e a evolução dos automóveis, analisando como as mudanças de contexto afetaram a indústria automotiva. Da mesma forma, é pesquisado sobre como a evolução do automóvel moderno moldou o estilo de vida da sociedade, nos últimos 125 anos. A relação entre o contexto histórico e as mudanças na indústria automotiva é a base que o trabalho utiliza para justificar o emprego das novas tecnologias interativas nos automóveis.São analisadas novas tecnologias interativas existentes e em estágio avançado de desenvolvimento, notadamente aplicadas a smartphones e tablets, e a influência que essas estão tendo no modo de vida contemporâneo. Foi verificado que, apesar dos automóveis terem evoluído concomitantemente com a sociedade, nos mais de cem anos desde sua invenção, estão demorando a embarcar tais desenvolvimentos tecnológicos, continuando, em sua maioria, máquinas análogas e isoladas das outras partes que compõem o trânsito. Este trabalho se propõe a analisar tais tecnologias interativas, estudar quais podem ser embarcadas nos automóveis, exemplificando as possibilidades de aplicação das mesmas, através de um modelo tridimensional, criando um produto customizável em massa, condizente com as tendências sociais contemporâneas, que atenda o maior número de consumidores em potencial, com uma mesma linha de produto, evidenciando o diferencial competitivo que este proporcionaria ao seu fabricante ante a concorrência. / The objective of this paper is to highlight the benefits that contemporary social changes, fueled by the interactive technological evolution, can exert on the automotive industry, mainly in the aspect of product customization.In order to strengthen the relation between historical context and changes in automotive industry, this paper draws a parallel between social changes and automobile evolution, evidencing how context changes affect the automotive industry. Also, this paper demonstrate how the evolution of the modern automobile framed society life style in the past 125 years. The relation between historical context and automotive industry changes is the base that this paper use to justify the insertion of interactive technologies in automobiles.New and advance stage technologies are analyzed, mostly the ones applied to smartphones and tablets, and the influence of such technologies in contemporary lifestyle.It is shown that, despite cars have evolved together with society for over a century since its invention, they are holding up the insertion of this new technologies, remaining, mostly, analog machines isolated from the other traffic components.This paper proposes to analyze these interactive technologies, studing which one can be applied in automobiles, demonstrating the applications possibilities through a tridimensional model, creating a mass customizable product, consistent with contemporary social trends, that reach most of the potential buyers with a single product line, demonstrating this product manufacturer competitive advantage against competition.

IC設計公司的間接成本高，須追求規模經濟，但對物聯網這種少量多樣的應用又有厚望。因此多會謹慎投入，怕投入如流水，又怕咬不到餅。 面對整體龐大的物聯網產業，歐美大廠運用優勢，嘗試建立特有的生態圈將各方納入。案例IC設計公司的規模很難和歐美大廠對作，但也有其優勢，不過原規模經濟的商業模式不再適用。 IC複雜使其位居重要位置，而案例IC設計公司擁有許多優秀工程人才，再加上成熟產品線廣，且和物聯網關聯，都是優勢資源。但做的是B2B生意，接觸不到終端市場，而新IC開發時間長，導致對終端需求掌握度低，且現有工程師數量是無法支援有多樣需求的微型物聯網業者，這些就是劣勢資源。 如案例IC設計公司將微型物聯網業者及獨立工作者拉到平台上，提供工作者自主工作機會，同時滿足物聯網業者不足的支援人力。案例IC設計公司須貢獻包含工作者的訓練與認證、協助物聯網業者找到符合的工作者、設計專案流程管理機制同時確保工作者收得到價金。如此解決了對微型物聯網業者支援不夠的問題，還可藉由平台獲取最真確的需求資訊，又解決另一困境。 三方都有得且無太多風險，可行性確認。用波特的五力分析，案例IC設計公司導入新商業模式有相當優勢，早投入更可建立先行者優勢。

Le secteur automobile est aujourd’hui face au paradoxe de la personnalisation de masse. La diversité de produits finis est en augmentation perpétuelle du fait de la croissance de la personnalisation offerte au client. La diversité de composants à laquelle doivent faire faces les Chaînes Logistiques résulte de cette diversité de produits finis à fabriquer. Même si le coût de la diversité reste difficilement mesurable, cette diversité à un impact majeur sur la performance économique des entreprises de production. Dans le secteur automobile, une grande partie de ces coûts sont induits par le nombre très important de contraintes entre composants. De façon opérationnelle, ces contraintes rendent difficile la définition de nomenclature. Dans cette thèse, nous étudions une nouvelle façon de représenter la diversité. Aussi, pour limiter l’inflation de la diversité de composants à gérer, les fabricants doivent améliorer sans cesse leurs processus de conception et de production. L’usage d’une architecture modulaire des produits doit permettre de simplifier ces contraintes et donc la diversité de composants. Le succès de la mise en place d’une telle architecture dépend d’un certain nombre de conditions que nous étudions aussi dans cette thèse. Enfin, parce que la diversité de composants peut aussi résulter d’une vision locale des enjeux de diversité en phase de conception, cette thèse propose aussi une méthode de standardisation des modules et de leurs composants invisibles du client, basée sur une vision économique globale. / Nowadays, the automotive sector faces the mass customization paradox. The end-product diversity is constantly increasing as the customer can customize more and more product features. The component variety that Supply Chains must deal with, results from the end-product variety to make. Though variety cost is hard to measure, variety has a great impact on the economic performance of today's manufacturers. In the automotive sector, a large portion of these costs are due to the great amount of constraints between components. On an operational point of view, these constraints lead to difficulties in the establishment of Bills of Materials. In this thesis, we define a new approach that describes the variety within Bills of Materials. In addition, in order to limit the inflation of component variety to manage, companies should improve continuously their design and manufacturing processes. The use of a modular architecture should allow to reduce the number of constraints between components and as a consequence, to reduce the component variety. The success of the application of such architecture depends on some prerequisites that we also focus on in this thesis. Finally, as component variety might result also from local interests in design phases, this thesis proposes also a model that aims at standardizing both modules and their components that is based on a global economic perspective.

According to production process theory, customization is directly related to cost and inversely related to volume, efficiency, and productivity. However, customers generally desire products that are individually tailored to their wants and needs. For this reason, as residential contractors grow, they struggle to meet customers' demands for flexibility. This struggle to increase customization is not unique to the construction industry and many other industries have studied this problem in depth. While the inverse relationship between customization and cost is generally true, mass customization can enable increased customization with limited or no increased cost. The residential construction process employs many mass customization enabling principles, including modularity and product family design. However, the preconstruction process fails to employ these same principles. The purpose of this study was to explore how mass customization principles can simplify customization in the residential preconstruction process. Two rounds of interviews were conducted with residential construction industry preconstruction experts. Using their input, a process for implementing mass customization was developed. The results demonstrate that implementing mass customization principles can greatly simplify the purchasing, estimating, and option pricing processes for residential contractors. However, mass customization also significantly affects company structure, cost control strategies, trade relationships, and leanness. This research is enlightening to residential contractors struggling to manage customization. It also provides direction for software developers targeting the residential construction processes.

No description available.

In this work, we address a variety of problems with applications to `ethanol production from biomass', `agile manufacturing' and `mass customization' domains. Our motivation stems from the potential use of biomass as an alternative to non-renewable fuels, the prevalence of `flexible manufacturing systems', and the popularity of `mass customization' in today's highly competitive markets. Production scheduling and design and optimization of logistics network mark the underlying topics of our work. In particular, we address three problems, Biomass Logistics Problem, Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem, and Stochastic Demand Assembly Job Scheduling Problem. The Biomass Logistics Problem is a strategic cost analysis for setup and operation of a biomass supply chain network that is aimed at the production of ethanol from switchgrass. We discuss the structural components and operations for such a network. We incorporate real-life GIS data of a geographical region in a model that captures this problem. Consequently, we develop and demonstrate the effectiveness of a `Nested Benders' based algorithm for an efficient solution to this problem. The Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem concerns with production scheduling of a lot over a two-stage hybrid flow shop configuration of machines, and is often encountered in `flexible manufacturing systems'. We incorporate the use of `lot-streaming' in order to minimize the makespan value. Although a general case of this problem is NP-hard, we develop a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm for a special case of this problem when the sublot sizes are treated to be continuous. The case of discrete sublot sizes is also discussed for which we develop a branch-and-bound-based method and experimentally demonstrate its effectiveness in obtaining a near-optimal solution. The Stochastic Demand Assembly Job Scheduling Problem deals with the scheduling of a set of products in a production setting where manufacturers seek to fulfill multiple objectives such as `economy of scale' together with achieving the flexibility to produce a variety of products for their customers while minimizing delivery lead times. We design a novel methodology that is geared towards these objectives and propose a Lagrangian relaxation-based algorithm for efficient computation. / Doctor of Philosophy / In this work, we organize our research efforts in three broad areas - Biomass Supply Chain, Hybrid Flow Shop, and Assembly Job Shop, which are separate in terms of their application but connected by scheduling and logistics as the underlying functions. For each of them, we formulate the problem statement and identify the challenges and opportunities from the viewpoint of mathematical decision making. We use some of the well known results from the theory of optimization and linear algebra to design effective algorithms in solving these specific problems within a reasonable time limit. Even though the emphasis is on conducting an algorithmic analysis of the proposed solution methods and in solving the problems analytically, we strive to capture all the relevant and practical features of the problems during formulation of each of the problem statement, thereby maintaining their applicability. The Biomass Supply Chain pertains to the production of fuel grade ethanol from naturally occurring biomass in the form of switchgrass. Such a system requires establishment of a supply chain and logistics network that connects the production fields at its source, the intermediate points for temporary storage of the biomass, and bio-energy plant and refinery at its end for conversion of the cellulosic content in the biomass to crude oil and ethanol, respectively. We define the components and operations necessary for functioning of such a supply chain. The Biomass Logistics Problem that we address is a strategic cost analysis for setup and operation of such a biomass supply chain network. We focus our attention to a region in South Central Virginia and use the detailed geographic map data to obtain land use pattern in the region. We conduct survey of existing literature to obtain various transportation related cost factors and costs associated with the use of equipment. Our ultimate aim here is to understand the feasibility of running a biomass supply chain in the region of interest from an economic standpoint. As such, we represent the Biomass Logistics Problem with a cost-based optimization model and solve it in a series of smaller problems. A Hybrid Flow Shop (HFS) is a configuration of machines that is often encountered in the flexible manufacturing systems, wherein a particular station of machines can execute processing of jobs/tasks simultaneously. In our work, we approach a specific type of HFS, with a single machine at the first stage and multiple identical machines at the second stage. A batch or lot of jobs/items is considered for scheduling over such an HFS. Depending upon the area of application, such a batch is either allowed to be split into continuous sections or restricted to be split in discrete sizes only. The objective is to minimize the completion time of the last job on its assigned machine at the second stage. We call this problem, Hybrid Flow Shop Scheduling Problem, which is known to be a hard problem in literature. We aim to derive the results which will reduce the complexity of this problem, and develop both exact as well as heuristic methods in order to obtain near-optimal solution to this problem. An Assembly Job Shop is a variant of the classical Job Shop which considers scheduling a set of assembly operations over a set of assembly machines. Each operation can only be started once all the other operations in its precedence relationship are completed. Assembly Job Shop are at the core of some of the highly competitive manufacturing facilities that are principled on the philosophy of Mass Customization. Assuming an inherent nature of demand uncertainty, this philosophy aims to achieve ‘economy of scale’ together with flexibility to produce a variety of products for the customers while minimizing the delivery lead times simultaneously. We incorporate some of these challenges in a concise framework of production scheduling and call this problem as Stochastic Demand Assembly Job Scheduling Problem. We design a novel methodology that is geared towards achieving the set objectives and propose an effective algorithm for efficient computation.