Decision support for build-to-order supply chain management through multiobjective optimization

This paper aims to identify the gaps in decision-making support based on multiobjective optimization for build-to-order supply chain management (BTOSCM). To this end, it reviews the literature available on modelling build-to-order supply chains (BTO-SC) with the focus on adopting multiobjective optimization (MOO) techniques as a decision support tool. The literature has been classified based on the nature of the decisions in different part of the supply chain, and the key decision areas across a typical BTO-SC are discussed in detail. Available software packages suitable for supporting decision making in BTO supply chains are also identified and their related solutions are outlined. The gap between the modelling and optimization techniques developed in the literature and the decision support needed in practice are highlighted and future research directions to better exploit the decision support capabilities of MOO are proposed

Decision support for build-to-order supply chain management through multiobjective optimization

This is the post-print version of the final paper published in International Journal of Production Economics. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2010 Elsevier B.V.This paper aims to identify the gaps in decision-making support based on multiobjective optimization (MOO) for build-to-order supply chain management (BTO-SCM). To this end, it reviews the literature available on modelling build-to-order supply chains (BTO-SC) with the focus on adopting MOO techniques as a decision support tool. The literature has been classified based on the nature of the decisions in different part of the supply chain, and the key decision areas across a typical BTO-SC are discussed in detail. Available software packages suitable for supporting decision making in BTO supply chains are also identified and their related solutions are outlined. The gap between the modelling and optimization techniques developed in the literature and the decision support needed in practice are highlighted. Future research directions to better exploit the decision support capabilities of MOO are proposed. These include: reformulation of the extant optimization models with a MOO perspective, development of decision supports for interfaces not involving manufacturers, development of scenarios around service-based objectives, development of efficient solution tools, considering the interests of each supply chain party as a separate objective to account for fair treatment of their requirements, and applying the existing methodologies on real-life data sets.Brunel Research Initiative and Enterprise Fund (BRIEF

Exploring Pharmaceutical Mass Customization

The core purpose of therapeutic pharmaceutical products is to induce responses to various diseases in patients and thereby bring societal value; however, unmet medical needs currently prevail. Conventional treatment of these products predominantly embraces a one-size-fits-all design and is manufactured in a mass-production context. A mass-production context is driven by economies of scale, however, a one-size-fits-all product design challenges the satisfaction of individual patient needs. Pharmaceutical product customization thus aims to satisfy individuals’ treatment needs and thereby improve their therapeutic outcome; however, this implies a high product variety and low-volume production environment which challenges the cost-effective production with current mass-production platforms.To address this challenge of achieving the cost-effective production of customized pharmaceutical products, this thesis explores a unified approach to cost-effective design, manufacturing and supply of customized pharmaceutical products. For this purpose, the mass customization principles of product modularization, process flexibility and postponement are adopted and adapted in a pharmaceutical production context.This thesis proposes methodologies to design and model customized pharmaceutical products and production systems in a unified manner. Furthermore, customized product designs are proposed using product modularization as a design strategy and reconfigured pharmaceutical supply chain (SC) archetypes using postponement as a strategy for the cost-effective design, manufacturing and supply. The findings suggest that an increased degree of modularization in the pharmaceutical product increases the patient benefit and thus improves therapeutic patient outcomes. In addition, current mass production platforms do not display the process flexibility required for the cost-effective production of customized pharmaceutical products. Moreover, with an increased degree of postponement, opportunities for reduced production costs in the SC emerge. Finally, the cost-effective customization of pharmaceutical products requires an integrated approach of product modularization and postponement. While modeling the production system, this thesis, however, considers an SC from the manufacturer to the pharmacy and patient assessing contemporary cost-effectiveness. Future research directions should investigate societal consequences from a wider, spatial and temporal, health care system perspective

Mass Customization Strategies And Their Relationship To Lean Production In The Homebuilding Industry

Current housing trends point to an increasing interest from homebuyers to demand houses that reflect their personal and unique styles, and which are individually configured according to these needs (NAHB, 2004). These homebuyers in turn are unwilling to settle for standard models that sacrifice what they really want in a home. At the same time this creates pressure on builders who are reluctant to sacrifice production efficiencies by deviating from standard models. Such customization desired by demanding customers can disrupt the entire estimating, production, delivery and management process, making it even more difficult to manage homebuilding efficiently and effectively. The question faced by homebuilders in this conditions is, how to manage this trade-off and deliver exactly what homebuyers want, at reasonable prices and lead times with minimal disruptions in efficiencies. Mass Customization (MC) is an emerging production paradigm that seeks to manage the trade-offs between product variety and mass efficiency, while fulfilling individual customer requirements. The general purpose of this research is to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of housing production through the implementation of mass customization strategies. More specifically, this research focuses on the study of the production system through the application of lean production principles, as an approach to enable mass customization. This study first characterizes how much product choice is currently being offered by U.S. homebuilders and what is the impact of customization on production efficiency; and then focuses on the evaluation of the relationships between mass customization and lean production principles. Results revealed that homebuilders offering increased product choice are likely to suffer poorer labor productivity, greater inventory, higher production costs, more quality issues, less satisfied homebuyers, and lower space efficiency. In general, operational performance deteriorated with an increase in product choice. Therefore, industrialized housing manufacturers have not reached the ideal of mass customization and are paying a price for offering more choices to their customers. Homebuilders could mitigate these challenges by using lean concepts. In general, case studies showed that product choice does not necessarily make the implementation of lean concepts more difficult. Some lean concepts, like workload balancing and standardizing tasks, clearly facilitated the handling of product choice. Other lean concepts, like creating a continuous process flow, can be made to work well, even with increased choice. Case study results suggested that good concepts for lean (e.g., efficient continuous flow, effective pull system, workload leveling, defect-free processes, standard tasks, good visual controls, and reliable technology) were also good concepts for (or easily accommodated) handling a range of product choice

Integrated Assessment of Assembly fixtures Re-configurability

The needs of consumers are changing over time. As a result, the manufacturers are looking for new methods to adapt effectively and efficiently to market changes. These involve supplying customers with a variety of products in a reasonable time with decreasing the cost. Reconfigurable fixtures are an important means for dealing with increased product variety and shorter life cycles, as they help change between the product variants effectively and decrease the time and resources required to introduce new product variants. In this thesis, an integrated method to assess the reconfigurability of assembly fixtures is developed. This assessment is based on four core reconfigurability characteristics: scalability, modularity, convertibility, and customized flexibility. A clear definition of the scalability of the reconfigurable assembly fixtures was developed. A mathematical model for each characteristic of reconfigurable assembly fixtures was developed. Their indices were determined then combined using a radar plot to assess the reconfigurability of the reconfigurable assembly fixture. Welding tack fixture is chosen as a case study in this thesis. Two redesign recommendations were proposed. The results showed the most appropriate design with highest reconfigurability index because it was designed to produce the same number of product variants with less reconfiguration time, cost, effort, and complexity. The significance of research in this thesis is to help in the design stage of the assembly fixture by comparing different configurations for the assembly fixture to choose the best one and suggesting some changes for the assembly fixture design and configuration. This is essential to minimize the number of fixtures to be produced when the new part component/ variant is introduced

Network Virtual Machine (NetVM): A New Architecture for Efficient and Portable Packet Processing Applications

A challenge facing network device designers, besides increasing the speed of network gear, is improving its programmability in order to simplify the implementation of new applications (see for example, active networks, content networking, etc). This paper presents our work on designing and implementing a virtual network processor, called NetVM, which has an instruction set optimized for packet processing applications, i.e., for handling network traffic. Similarly to a Java Virtual Machine that virtualizes a CPU, a NetVM virtualizes a network processor. The NetVM is expected to provide a compatibility layer for networking tasks (e.g., packet filtering, packet counting, string matching) performed by various packet processing applications (firewalls, network monitors, intrusion detectors) so that they can be executed on any network device, ranging from expensive routers to small appliances (e.g. smart phones). Moreover, the NetVM will provide efficient mapping of the elementary functionalities used to realize the above mentioned networking tasks upon specific hardware functional units (e.g., ASICs, FPGAs, and network processing elements) included in special purpose hardware systems possibly deployed to implement network devices

Pharmaceutical product modularization as a mass customization strategy to increase patient benefit cost-efficiently

Customized pharmaceutical products aim to comply with the individual needs of a patient to enhance the treatment outcome. The current pharmaceutical production paradigm is, however, dominated by mass production, where the pharmaceutical products embrace a one-size-fits-all design with a low possibility of treatment optimization to patient needs. This production paradigm is not designed or intended for customized pharmaceutical products and operating this production context for customized pharmaceutical products is argued to be cost-inefficient. To address this challenge of inefficient production of customized pharmaceutical products, this study proposes an approach to modular pharmaceutical product design. As a mass customization strategy, product modularization enables serving customers with customized products cost-efficiently. The proposed modular pharmaceutical products integrate three product design requirements originating from patient needs: a scalable dose strength, a flexible target release profile, and a scalable treatment size. An approach to assess the value of these product designs is presented, by means of proposing three benefit metrics complying with respective design requirements and a cost metric assessing the cost of producing these modular pharmaceutical product designs. Results suggest that pharmaceutical product modularization can, by keeping the number of produced components low, substantially increase the external product variety and, hence, enhance the treatment outcome of patients. Fur-thermore, results indicate that the achieved benefit for the patient through product modularization increases beyond additional costs arising during production. However, a careful modularization must be performed to optimize the tradeoff between the increased benefit and cost

An analytical surver on customization at modular systems in the context of industrial design

Thesis (Master)--Izmir Institute of Technology, Industrial Design, Izmir, 2006Includes bibliographical references (leaves: 96-99)Text in English; Abstract: Turkish and Englishxi, 99 leavesEnterprises in all branches of industry are being required to become more user focused, yet, at the same time, increasing competitive pressure dictates that costs must also continue to decrease. Mass customization and modularity are strategies developed to address this challenge by producing goods and services meeting individual customer's needs with near mass production efficiency. However, while mass customization and modular systems have already been discussed in the literature, reports on practical implementation of the principles of mass customization in businesses can be found only within the last years. It is a challenge of manufacturing to produce variety of products with limited resources. As corporations strive to rationalize their manufacturing facilities and to produce a large variety of products at lower cost, modularity is becoming a focus of attention. Modular products and reconfigurable processes are crucial to agile manufacturing and provide a way to produce a variety of products that satisfy various customer requirements in time. This modular approach promises the benefits of high volume production (that arises from producing standard modules) and at the same time, the ability to produce a wide variety of products that are customized for individual customers. Such modular product design has been stated as being a goal of good design. Mass Customization target is the transformation of knowledge into "new" products or services, thus customizing and adapting first knowledge then the product itself. Customizing knowledge happens through instantiation and adaptation of design prototypes of the products or the component to fit the individual needs of the customer. This thesis. emphasis is placed on mass customization and modularity which can be seen as key strategies for making firms more customer centric. Furthermore, provide an introduction into principles, concepts, and demarcations, for mass customization and modularity. As the case study Aye Birsel.s resolve model for Herman Miller is a very good example for the relationship between mass customization and modularity