A front-end system to support cloud-based manufacturing of customised products

In today’s global market, customized products are amongst an important means to address diverse customer demand and in achieving a unique competitive advantage. Key enablers of this approach are existing product configuration and supporting IT-based manufacturing systems. As a proposed advancement, it considered that the development of a front-end system with a next level of integration to a cloud-based manufacturing infrastructure is able to better support the specification and on-demand manufacture of customized products. In this paper, a new paradigm of Manufacturing-as-a-Service (MaaS) environment is introduced and highlights the current research challenges in the configuration of customizable products. Furthermore, the latest development of the front-end system is reported with a view towards further work in the research

Effective product assortment communication: overcoming the "product variety paradox" on the net

When a firm offers customized products, variants and options may end up confusing the customer, instead of increasing sales. Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology made available a class of software products, often termed as "product configurators", which appears to offer new solutions to support the sale of customized products. The present paper analyzes the underlying principles on which successful sales configurators have been built. In doing so, the paper attempts a formalization of the mechanisms through which a firm´s product assortment can be efficiently and effectively presented to the customer.e-commerce, Product Variety, Product configuration, Customization

IT support to product variety management

Offering to customers a high variety of products while guaranteeing competitive prices and reasonable delivery times is an ever-increasing necessity for companies. At the same time, the growing technological content of products contributes further to this complexity, introducing new challenges to management. As for any area of company activity, the creativity of software producers has brought about the development of information science systems, such as Product Configuration Systems, Product Data Management systems (PDM) and Customer Relationship Management Systems (CRM), which all promise to alleviate the problems caused by this complexity.Product Variety, Product Configuration Systems, Product Data Management Systems, Customer Relationship Management Systems

Strategy and Factors Affecting the Supply Chain of Manufacturing Industries in Saudi Arabia

Supply chain management is becoming very important in the agile manufacturing industries of nowadays. It is imperative to study the strategy and factors affecting the integration of supply chain management in company’s operating divisions. Forecasting and quality functions should be integrated in supply chains. It is assumed that SCM can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of company’s transformation process. Hence it is important for companies in Saudi Arabia to follow this trend and began implementing SCM to squeeze the excessive fat out of their operations. The paper will start by general introduction with an overview about supply chain management. Then, it will summarize the theoretical background for strategy. In next section method and research methodology will be discussed with analysis of results. Finally, the paper will close with a conclusion Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Strategy, Factors, Manufacturing industries, Lean and Agile Supply Chain

IMPLEMENTATION OF TECHNOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT INITIATIVES TO ELIMINATE COMPETITIVE PRIORITIES TRADE-OFFS

Penelitian ini mengidentifikasi apakah implementasi teknologi dan praktek manajemen berperan dalam meminimalkan trade-off diantara competitive priorities. Pengujian dilakukan dengan menggunakan paradigma matrik produk-proses (Hayes dan Wheelwright 1979) yang mensyaratkan adanya kesesuaian antara struktur produk dan struktur proses produksi. Variabel yang digunakan untuk meminimalkan trade-off adalah teknologi pemrosesan, teknologi pendesainan produk, program kualitas dan JIT. Competitive priorities dibentuk dengan analisis faktor (factor analysis) sedangkan untuk menyusun kategori process choice diterapkan non hierarchical clustering.Hasil analisa menunjukkan process choice berkaitan erat dengan competitive priorities yang diterapkan dalam persaingan, kecuali untuk competitive priorities pengiriman. Hal ini mengindikasikan bahwa perusahaan manufaktur belum mempertimbangkan pengiriman sebagai variabel yang penting untuk memberikan keunggulan kompetitif. Sebagian besar plant yang dijadikan sampel juga masih mengikuti paradigma matrik produk-proses dengan memposisikan dirinya berada pada diagonal matrik. Namun demikian, terdapat beberapa plant yang memposisikan diri berada di luar diagonal matrik untuk memperjelas posisinya dengan pesaing. Plant pada kelompok ini berhasil menghilangkan beberapa trade-off dengan menerapkan teknologi dan praktek manajemen meskipun masih terdapat dua trade-off yang belum berhasil untuk dihilangkan, yaitu biaya-kustomisasi dan biaya-kualitas.