Manufacturing industries in the United States continue to experience increasing pressure from foreign competition. Through decreasing product lead time, U.S. manufacturers can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Southern yellow pine manufacturing is an example of an industry that can benefit from product lead time reduction. This project involved a case study of a southern yellow pine lumber manufacturer. Value stream mapping was used to evaluate the current lead time for the lumber manufacturer as well as design future state systems. Current state evaluation discovered an average lead time of 35.3 days according to six months of inventory data. Four future state systems were developed according to current demand and had lead times ranging from 10.8 to 14.9 days. Lead time reduction was achieved through more closely synchronizing and planing operations with sawmill output. To illustrate the impact of lead time on financial performance, the amount of capital invested in inventory was evaluated for the current state value stream as well as the future state value streams. All of the future state capital inventory requirements were less than 50 percent of the current state capital inventory requirement. Implementation of future state value streams would allow the manufacturer to benefit from having more available capital. This research project also investigated the use of pull production at the softwood lumber manufacturing operation. Effective implementation of pull production would require improving headrig optimization programs, presorting material by grade before drying, little or no drying degrade, and reducing both drying and cooling time. Due to the technological requirements of pull production in lumber manufacturing, the system was not currently feasible for the lumber manufacturer. Future research efforts should be directed towards creating the technology necessary to economically implement pull production in the softwood sawmill industry. / Master of Science

In this thesis, we study three applications of dynamic resource allocation: the first two consider dynamic lead-time quotation in make-to-order (MTO) systems with substitutable products and order cancellations, respectively; and the third application is a manpower allocation problem with job-teaming constraints. Matching supply and demand for manufacturing and service industries has been a fundamental focus of operations management literature, which concentrated on optimizing or improving supply-side decisions since demand has generally been assumed to be exogenously determined. However, recent business trends and advances in consumer behavior modeling have shown that demand for goods and services can clearly be shaped by various decisions that a firm makes, such as price and lead-time. In fact, competition between companies is no longer mainly based on price or product features; lead-time is one of the strategic measures to evaluate suppliers. In MTO manufacturing or service environments that aim to satisfy the customers' unique needs, lead-time quotation impacts the actual demand of the products and the overall profitability of the firm. In the first two parts of the thesis, we study the dynamic lead-time quotation problem in pure MTO (or service) systems characterized by lead-time sensitive Poisson demand and exponentially distributed service times. We formulate the problem as an infinite horizon Markov decision process (MDP) with the objective of maximizing the long-run expected average profit per unit time, where profits are defined to specifically account for delays in delivery of the customer orders. We study dynamic lead-time quotation problem in two particular settings; one setting with the possibility of demand substitution and another setting with order cancellations. The fundamental trade-off in lead-time quotation is between quoting short lead-times and attaining them. In case of demand substitution, i.e., in presence of substitutable products and multiple customer classes with different requirements and margins, this trade-off also includes capacity allocation and order acceptance decisions. In particular, one needs to decide whether to allocate capacity to a low-margin order now, or whether to reserve capacity for potential future arrivals of high-margin orders by considering customer preferences, the current workload in the system, and the future arrivals. In the case of order cancellations, one needs to take into account the probability of cancellation of orders currently in the system and quote lead-times accordingly; otherwise quotation of a longer lead-time may result in the loss of customer order, lower utilization of resources, and, in turn, reduced in profits. In Chapter 2, we study a dynamic lead-time quotation problem in a MTO system with two (partially) substitutable products and two classes of customers. Customers decide to place an order on one of the products or not to place an order, based on the quoted lead-times. We analyze the optimal profit and the structure of the optimal lead-time policy. We also compare the lead-time quotes and profits for different quotation strategies (static vs. dynamic) with or without substitution. Numerical results show that substitution and dynamic quotation have synergetic effects, and higher benefits can be obtained by dynamic quotation and/or substitution when difference in product revenues or arrival rates, or total traffic intensity are higher. In Chapter 3, we study a dynamic lead-time quotation problem in a MTO system with single product considering the order cancellations. The order cancellations can take place during the period that the order is being processed (either waiting or undergoing processing), or after the processing is completed, at the delivery to the customer. We analyze the behavior of optimal profit in terms of cancellation parameters. We show that the optimal profit does not necessarily decrease as cancellation rate increases through a numerical study. When the profit from a cancelled order, arrival rate of customers, or lead-time sensitivity of customers are high, there is a higher probability that optimal profit increases as cancellation rate increases. We also compare the cancellation scenarios with the corresponding no-cancellation scenarios, and show that there exists a cancellation scenario that is at least as good in terms of profit than a no-cancellation scenario for most of the parameter settings. In Chapter 4, we study the Manpower Allocation Problem with Job-Teaming Constraints with the objective of minimizing the total completion time of all tasks. The problem arises in various contexts where tasks require cooperation between workers: a team of individuals with varied expertise required in different locations in a business environment, surgeries requiring different composition of doctors and nurses in a hospital, a combination of technicians with individual skills needed in a service company. A set of tasks at random locations require a set of capabilities to be accomplished, and workers have unique capabilities that are required by several tasks. Tasks require synchronization of workers to be accomplished, hence workers arriving early at a task have to wait for other required workers to arrive in order to start processing. We present a mixed integer programming formulation, strengthen it by adding cuts and propose heuristic approaches. Experimental results are reported for low and high coordination levels, i.e., number of workers that are required to work simultaneously on a given task.

No description available.

Logistics is an integral component in making the production process more efficient in companies. An important concept in logistics is lead time, the time it takes for a product to go through the process from inbound and outbound to the customer. A normal logistical process comprises the initial receival of goods, controls upon arrival and further quality controls carried out before the product ends up in the storage. The delivery process is a central process with many sub-processes including varying working methods and routines that can result in permeating inefficiencies in the company if they aren’t done properly. The purpose of the study is to identify causes of inefficiency that might cause extended lead times and reduced productivity in the delivery process. This is achieved by studying the internal workflow and routines of Volkswagen Parts Logistics delivery process.  This study’s based on a case and the data is gathered by semi-structured interviews and observations at Volkswagen Parts Logistics. Thereafter the results are analysed through literature and scientific articles.  The study first identifies one cause of inefficiency through factors such as simplification, synchronization, communication and integration. To identify the root-cause, a root-cause analysis has been used on these factors, which are then compiled into a cause and effect diagram and finally six factors have been explained. From the analysis and discussion of the six factors, four improvement suggestions have been submitted to Volkswagen Parts Logistics. The suggestions included education & training, standardized working methods, understanding the whole process and cooperation between groups. The study presents a scientific gap regarding the efficiency improvement of lead time with Human Lean aspect with a focus on the delivery process. The study contributes to the gap through the six factors and improvement suggestions based on analysis and discussion. / Logistik har blivit allt viktigare för att effektivisera produktionen i företag. Ett viktigt begrepp inom logistik är ledtid, i den här studien innebär ledtid tiden det tar för en reservdel inleverans till utleverans vidare mot kund. En väsentlig del inom logistik är inleveransprocessen för inkommande gods som går igenom godsmottagning, ankomstkontroll och kvalitetskontroll för att sedan hamna på lagerhyllan. Inleveransprocessen är en central process med många delprocesser och varierande arbetssätt samt rutiner som vid brister kan medföra en genomsyrande ineffektivitet i företaget. När avvikelser uppstår kan det medföra en förlängning av ledtiden vilket påverkar resten av processen och framförallt utleveransen till kunden. Studiens syfte är att identifiera orsaker till ineffektivitet som kan leda till förlängda ledtider och minskad produktivitet i inleveransprocessen. Det görs genom att studera arbetssätt och rutiner i inleveransprocessen.  För att utveckla kunskap rörande faktorer som påverkar inleveransprocessen är en fallstudie som grund med genomförda semistrukturerade intervjuer och observationer genomförts på Volkswagen Parts Logistics. Resultat har analyserats med hjälp av litteratur och vetenskapliga artiklar från forskningsområdet. I studien identifieras först orsaken till ineffektivitet genom faktorer som förenkling, synkronisering, kommunikation och integration. För att identifiera rotorsaken till ineffektivitet har en rotorsaksanalys genomförts på dessa faktorer som sedan sammanställts i en orsakverkan-diagram och slutligen har sex stycken faktorer presenterats.  Utifrån analys och diskussion för de sex faktorerna framtogs fyra stycken förbättringsförslag till fallföretaget. Förbättringsförslagen innefattade utbildning & upplärning, standardiserade arbetssätt, förståelse för hela processen och samarbete mellan grupper. I studien framförs ett vetenskapligt gap gällande effektivisering av ledtid med Human Lean aspekt med avgränsning till inleveransprocessen. Studien bidrar till detta gap genom de sex framtagna faktorerna samt formulerade förbättringsförslag baserat på analys och diskussion.

Globalization that diminishes the barriers to trade worldwide has transformed the structure of production and increased the global competition in the textile and apparel industry. Especially, the elimination of quotas on January 2005 has totally changed the whole scenario of the apparel industry. A boom has been noticed in the emerging markets. Buyers shift their maximum orders to the low cost countries to increase their profit margins. China has gained its popularity among the European and American buyers because of the cheap labor and large scales of production and has become the world’s largest exporter of textile and apparel. The traditional competitive factor among the buyers is the lower cost of the product but the changing markets trends and demand volatility pushes the buyers to focus also on quality and lead times in addition to price. Due to the huge competition among the cluster of brands, retailers and wholesalers, lead time is becoming critical as longer lead times increases the risk of bottleneck to sales. China is the most important apparel supplier for the EU (especially Germany, the UK, and France) because it provides the cost benefit to the sourcing companies, but at the same time, it increases the lead times and also has more environmental impact in terms of pollution because of the long geographical distance.This thesis highlights that there is a remarkable rise of the labor cost in China, noticed for the last couple of years, which has reduced the competitive factor of price while sourcing from China. This is also an upcoming challenge for the whole world with regards to sourcing strategies. Many sourcing companies are shifting their shares away from China in order to achieve their desired profit margins. Turkey may be an alternative sourcing destination for the European apparel buyers and wholesalers because of its competitive labor cost, favorable government policies, flexibility, sustainability, and proximity to Europe. In this thesis, a pilot study is carried out to determine the relationship and effects of lead times on sales. This thesis also describes the effects of relationships among the business partners on the supply chain flow. It is noted through several pilot studies that the organizations who work in collaboration with their supply chain partners can significantly improve their supply chain efficiency by reducing the inventories, markdowns, lead times, lost sales, and increasing forecast accuracy. There are several tools in use for collaboration such as Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Just in Time (JIT), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Collaboration, Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR). In this paper the CPFR implementation steps, benefits, and hindrances are discussed in detail. / Program: Master programme in Applied Textile Management

Parallèlement au prix, le délai de livraison est un facteur clé de compétitivité pour les entreprises. De plus les entreprises sont plus que jamais obligées de respecter ce délai promis. La combinaison du choix du prix et du délai promis implique de nouveaux compromis et offre de nombreuses perspectives. Un délai plus court peut entraîner une augmentation de la demande, mais augmente également le risque de livraison tardive et donc décourager les clients. A contrario un délai plus long ou un prix plus élevé entraîne généralement une baisse de la demande. Or malgré le rôle stratégique conjoint du prix et des délais et leurs impacts sur la demande, dans la littérature en gestion des opérations on suppose très généralement une demande exogène (fixée a priori) même si la conception de la chaîne impacte fortement les délais (localisation des sites, positionnement des stocks,..) et donc la demande. Nous nous sommes donc intéressés à ces choix de fixation des délais promis et du prix dans un contexte de demande endogène.La littérature traitant du choix du délai et du prix sous demande endogène a principalement considéré un contexte de fabrication à la commande (Make to Order). Un papier fondateur de Palaka et al en 1998 a présenté cette problématique avec une modélisation de l’entreprise par une file d’attente M/M/1 et nos travaux se placent dans la suite de ce travail. Notre revue de la littérature a permis d'identifier de nouvelles perspectives et nous proposons trois extensions dans cette thèse.Dans notre première contribution, en utilisant le cadre de Palaka et al, nous considérons que le coût de production est une fonction décroissante du délai. Dans tous les articles publiés dans ce contexte, le coût de production unitaire a été supposé constant. Pourtant en pratique, le coût de production unitaire dépend du délai promis, l'entreprise pouvant mieux gérer le processus de production et réduire les coûts de production en proposant des délais plus longs aux clients.Dans la deuxième contribution, nous considérons toujours le cadre de Palaka et al, mais modélisons l'entreprise comme une file d'attente M/M/1/K, pour laquelle la demande est donc rejetée s'il y a déjà K clients dans le système. Dans la littérature issue du travail de Palaka seule la file d'attente M/M/1 a été utilisée, ce qui signifie que tous les clients sont acceptés, ce qui peut entraîner de longues durées de séjour dans le système. Notre idée est basée sur le fait que rejeter certains clients, même si cela peut apparaitre dans un premier temps comme une perte de demande, pourrait aider à proposer un délai plus court pour les clients acceptés, et finalement conduire à une demande et donc un profit plus élevé.Dans la troisième contribution nous étudions un nouveau cadre pour le problème du délai et du prix en fonction de la demande endogène, en modélisant une chaîne logistique composée de deux étapes de production, modélisée par un réseau de files d’attente tandem (M/M/1-M/M/1). Dans la littérature avec ce cadre multi-entreprise, tous les articles ont considéré qu'un seul acteur avait des opérations de production, l'autre acteur ayant un délai nul. Nous avons étudié les scénarios centralisés et décentralisés.Pour chacun des nouveaux problèmes nous avons proposé des formulations maximisant le profit composé du revenu diminué des coûts de production, de stockage et pénalité de retard, et fourni des résolutions optimales, analytiques ou numériques. Ces résolutions nous ont amenés à démontrer de nouveaux résultats (retard moyen dans une M/M/1/K ; condition pour que des contraintes de service locales permettent d’assurer une contrainte de service globale dans un système en tandem). Nous avons mené des expériences numériques pour voir l’influence des différents paramètres. / Along with the price, the delivery lead time has become a key factor of competitiveness for companies and an important purchase criterion for many customers. Nowadays, firms are more than ever obliged to meet their quoted lead time, which is the delivery lead time announced to the customers. The combination of pricing and lead time quotation implies new trade-offs and offers opportunities for many insights. For instance, on the one hand, a shorter quoted lead time can lead to an increase in the demand but also increases the risk of late delivery and thus may affect the firm’s reputation and deter future customers. On the other hand, a longer quoted lead time or a higher price generally yields a lower demand. Despite the strategic role of joint pricing and lead time quotation decisions and their impacts on demand, in the operations management literature an exogenous demand (a priory a known demand) is generally used in supply chain models, even if the design of the supply chain has a strong impact on lead times (i.e., sites location, inventory position, etc.) and thus affects the demand. Therefore, we are interested in the lead time quotation and pricing decisions in a context of endogenous demand (i.e., demand sensitive to price and quoted lead time).The literature dealing with pricing and lead time quotation under an endogenous demand mainly considered a make to order (MTO) context. A pioneer paper, Palaka et al. (1998), investigated this issue by modeling the company as an M/M/1 queue, and our work follows their footsteps. Our review of the literature allowed to identify new perspectives for this problem, which led to three main contributions in this thesis.In our first contribution, using Palaka et al.’s framework, we consider the unit production cost to be a decreasing function in quoted lead time. In most published papers, the unit production cost was assumed to be constant. In practice, the unit production cost generally depends on the quoted lead time. Indeed, the firm can manage better the production process and reduce the production cost by quoting longer lead time to the customers.In the second contribution, we still consider Palaka et al.’s framework but model the firm as an M/M/1/K queue, for which demand is rejected if there are already K customers in the system. In the literature on single firm setting following Palaka et al.’s research, only the M/M/1 queue was used, i.e., where all customers are accepted, which might lead to long sojourn times in the system. Our idea is based on the fact that rejecting some customers, might help to quote shorter lead time for the accepted ones, which might finally lead to a higher profitability, even if in the first glance we lose some demand.In the third contribution, we study a new framework for the lead time quotation and pricing problem under endogenous demand as we model the supply chain by two production stages in a tandem queue (M/M/1-M/M/1). In the literature with multi-firm setting, all papers considered that only one actor has production operations and the other actor has zero lead time. We investigated both the centralized and decentralized decision settings.For each problem studied, we formulated a profit-maximization model, where the profit consists of a revenue minus the production, storage and lateness penalty costs, and provides the optimum result (analytically or numerically). These resolutions led us to demonstrate new theoretical results (such as the expected lateness in an M/M/1/K, and the sufficient condition required to satisfy the global service constraint in a tandem queue by only satisfying the local service constraints). We also conducted numerical experiments and derived managerial insights.

Globalization that diminishes the barriers to trade worldwide has transformed the structure of production and increased the global competition in the textile and apparel industry. Especially, the elimination of quotas on January 2005 has totally changed the whole scenario of the apparel industry. A boom has been noticed in the emerging markets. Buyers shift their maximum orders to the low cost countries to increase their profit margins. China has gained its popularity among the European and American buyers because of the cheap labor and large scales of production and has become the world’s largest exporter of textile and apparel. The traditional competitive factor among the buyers is the lower cost of the product but the changing markets trends and demand volatility pushes the buyers to focus also on quality and lead times in addition to price. Due to the huge competition among the cluster of brands, retailers and wholesalers, lead time is becoming critical as longer lead times increases the risk of bottleneck to sales. China is the most important apparel supplier for the EU (especially Germany, the UK, and France) because it provides the cost benefit to the sourcing companies, but at the same time, it increases the lead times and also has more environmental impact in terms of pollution because of the long geographical distance.This thesis highlights that there is a remarkable rise of the labor cost in China, noticed for the last couple of years, which has reduced the competitive factor of price while sourcing from China. This is also an upcoming challenge for the whole world with regards to sourcing strategies. Many sourcing companies are shifting their shares away from China in order to achieve their desired profit margins. Turkey may be an alternative sourcing destination for the European apparel buyers and wholesalers because of its competitive labor cost, favorable government policies, flexibility, sustainability, and proximity to Europe. In this thesis, a pilot study is carried out to determine the relationship and effects of lead times on sales. This thesis also describes the effects of relationships among the business partners on the supply chain flow. It is noted through several pilot studies that the organizations who work in collaboration with their supply chain partners can significantly improve their supply chain efficiency by reducing the inventories, markdowns, lead times, lost sales, and increasing forecast accuracy. There are several tools in use for collaboration such as Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Just in Time (JIT), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Collaboration, Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR). In this paper the CPFR implementation steps, benefits, and hindrances are discussed in detail. / Program: Master programme in Applied Textile Management

<p>This Master Thesis is a part of PlymoVent’s business to customer plot, with the aim to investigate how the consumers receive the services that PlymoVent provides. With regard to PlymoVent's business strategy and reference theory, the demands of how to receive and monitor a supply chain for a better customer satisfaction where targeted. The findings refer to poor customer satisfaction due to obscure procedures in problem resolution and discrepancy handling, and vague transportation accuracy.</p>

<p>Bakgrund: Under de senaste åren har Internetförsäljning ökat kraftigt och många företag har börjat lansera sina produkter via denna försäljningskanal. Att sälja produkter via Internet ställer höga krav på företagets logistiksystem i och med att kunderna lägger sina order direkt hos företaget och i många fall kräver de snabba leveranser. Detta i sin tur innebär att lagrets layout och personal måste anpassas till att bli mer flexibla.</p><p>Syfte: Vårt syfte är att undersöka vad som karaktäriserar ett kundorderstyrt lager och hur det bör organiseras och bemannas på ett effektivt sätt. I vår studie kommer vi att samarbeta med fallföretaget IKEA. Vi kommer att studera och ge förslag på lämplig bemanning av ett för IKEA nytt kundorderstyrt lager. </p><p>Avgränsningar: Vår uppsats kommer endast att beröra de branscher som studien omfattar. Vi kommer endast att gå på djupet inom de områden som direkt kommer att påverkas av kundorderstyrningen i lagret.</p><p>Genomförande: Uppsatsen bygger på empiriskt material från fem olika lager och teori kring ämnena kundorderstyrning, lagerflöde och bemanning. </p><p>Slutsatser: Vår studie påvisar tydliga tecken på att kundorderstyrning kommer att påverka lagerverksamheten i avseende på snabba och säkrare leveranser, krav på en flexibel organisation och kundfokusering i hela verksamheten.</p> / <p>Background: During the last years the selling through Internet has increased sharply and many companies have started putting their products on the market via this way of selling. To sell products via Internet makes great demands upon the logistics system while the customers put their orders directly to the company and very often demand fast deliveries. This, on the other hand, means that the layout of the wharehouse and the employees must be brought in line with to be more flexible.</p><p>Aim: Our aim is to examinate what characterizes a wharehouse controlled by customer orders, how it should be organized and crewed in an effective way. In our study we will cooperate with the casecompany of IKEA. We are going to study and submit a proposal of how to make a suitable crew for a new wharehouse of IKEA controlled by customer orders.</p><p>Demarcations: Our examination will only affect those branches that are included in the study. We will only go to the bottomof those areas, which directly will be influenced by a warehouse controlled by customer orders. </p><p>Realization: The examination is based upon empirical material from five different warehouses and theoretic studies about warehouses controlled by customer orders, flux circuit of warehouse and crewing.</p><p>Conclusion: Our study indicates clearly signs that warehouses controlled by customer orders will effect the activity in warehouse concerning fast and reliable deliveries, demands of a flexible organisation and customer focus in the whole business.</p>

Bakgrund: Under de senaste åren har Internetförsäljning ökat kraftigt och många företag har börjat lansera sina produkter via denna försäljningskanal. Att sälja produkter via Internet ställer höga krav på företagets logistiksystem i och med att kunderna lägger sina order direkt hos företaget och i många fall kräver de snabba leveranser. Detta i sin tur innebär att lagrets layout och personal måste anpassas till att bli mer flexibla. Syfte: Vårt syfte är att undersöka vad som karaktäriserar ett kundorderstyrt lager och hur det bör organiseras och bemannas på ett effektivt sätt. I vår studie kommer vi att samarbeta med fallföretaget IKEA. Vi kommer att studera och ge förslag på lämplig bemanning av ett för IKEA nytt kundorderstyrt lager. Avgränsningar: Vår uppsats kommer endast att beröra de branscher som studien omfattar. Vi kommer endast att gå på djupet inom de områden som direkt kommer att påverkas av kundorderstyrningen i lagret. Genomförande: Uppsatsen bygger på empiriskt material från fem olika lager och teori kring ämnena kundorderstyrning, lagerflöde och bemanning. Slutsatser: Vår studie påvisar tydliga tecken på att kundorderstyrning kommer att påverka lagerverksamheten i avseende på snabba och säkrare leveranser, krav på en flexibel organisation och kundfokusering i hela verksamheten. / Background: During the last years the selling through Internet has increased sharply and many companies have started putting their products on the market via this way of selling. To sell products via Internet makes great demands upon the logistics system while the customers put their orders directly to the company and very often demand fast deliveries. This, on the other hand, means that the layout of the wharehouse and the employees must be brought in line with to be more flexible. Aim: Our aim is to examinate what characterizes a wharehouse controlled by customer orders, how it should be organized and crewed in an effective way. In our study we will cooperate with the casecompany of IKEA. We are going to study and submit a proposal of how to make a suitable crew for a new wharehouse of IKEA controlled by customer orders. Demarcations: Our examination will only affect those branches that are included in the study. We will only go to the bottomof those areas, which directly will be influenced by a warehouse controlled by customer orders. Realization: The examination is based upon empirical material from five different warehouses and theoretic studies about warehouses controlled by customer orders, flux circuit of warehouse and crewing. Conclusion: Our study indicates clearly signs that warehouses controlled by customer orders will effect the activity in warehouse concerning fast and reliable deliveries, demands of a flexible organisation and customer focus in the whole business.